The Defenders Of Midgard, An MCU Fan Fiction:
Chapter #4: Now Say Hello To My Little Friends
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Chapter 4
Now Say Hello To My Little Friends
That Old Black Magic Has Me In It’s Spell
Director Mace recovers from his dark magic download on a med lab bed vacated by Daisy, as she heads up stairs for a bath and change of cloths, to look if not feel a bit more like her old self. Yo Yo takes her turn with a rejuvenating bath, the grabs a leather jacket and some leather gloves, and heads out after Mack and Robbie on one of Mack’s bikes, to join them in looking for Daisy’s dad, desperate for something to do, and to be occupied by doing it. Dr. Simmons demands that Fitz have a shave and a bath before he touches her again. So he heads up to the roof on orders from the queen to issue Captain Brian Braddock one of his magic matte black boxes, in hopes of being able to move the Kree war shuttle to Shield West Coast HQ.
Captain Brian:
So this little box… is supposed to help us make better weapons?… like the Kree?…
Fitz:
Ai… That it is… And may even allow one to use magic at a basic level… I need to find trustworthy recipients… And we’ve already fought side by side in this war… And you’re family… You do need a background in magic… and or… science and technology… But… as an astronaut in training… you more than qualify… And whatever you got going on with you that allows you to crunch ninja skulls with your bare fists… probably makes you an even better candidate… whatever it is… What is it by the way?… Or is it too sensitive… Some sort of super soldier serum perhaps?… I’m not judging if it is… But it would help to know…
Captain Brian:
It’s no serum… It’s more… traditional than that… My grandfather was a Howling Commando who fought along side Captain America in World War II… I grew up hearing stories about it… And dreaming of being for Britain… what Captain Rogers was for America… But I knew from the history that a super soldier serum was out of the question… Since that secret was essentially lost with the murder of it’s inventor… So I turned to more traditional… borderline mystical means… of strengthening myself… with traditional martial arts… and means of chi kung… the cultivation and harnessing of one’s life energy… needless to say… That’s not exactly something that you can put on a resume… if you’re trying to have a career as an astronaut… My sister is far more adept at this sort of thing than I am… But she’s just a concert pianist… She only studies this stuff because she was trying to find other ways to see… given that she was born blind…
Fitz:
Well then… If all that’s true… all the more reason to give you one… Master of kung fu… for queen and country… Here… Hold out you palms…
Fitz places his matte black box on Brian’s open palm, and goes through the procedure again to create a new magic matte black box in Brian’s other palm. As the new matte black box finishes it’s formation within Brian’s palm, it begins to lift up off of his hand, floating gently upward. He grabs at it as it floats up and begins to float up with it, as his feet lift up off the ground. Lady Sif reacts to this by grabbing Brian to hold him down, then floating up with him after making contact. Fitz grabs a rope on the roof and throws it up at Lady Sif, who grabs it, allowing Fitz to tie them to the roof with a tether, so they can pull themselves down.
Fitz:
Wow… That’s one hell of a reaction… Your training must give you an affinity for flight… when combined with the magic black box… You might want to be careful with that… these things do respond a bit too well to allow for any carelessness… You’re welcome by the way… But now your gonna have to learn how to control that bloody thing… Remember… It uses dark magic and state of the art nanotech… that pretty much reads your mind… That’s the interface… That plus it’s capacity to talk back from time to time… Plus holographic capabilities… That could be quite embarrassing if you can’t control them… Trust me…
Lady Sif:
Can I get one of these magic boxes to fly too?…
Fitz:
Well… I suspect that the flying thing is just something that Captain Braddock has a talent for… that the box just provided a conduit for… his prior training is what made the difference there… But as far as the magic boxes go… They do have built in minimal level electromagnetic levitation… But I suspect that Captain Braddock was floating himself even when he wasn’t in direct contact with it… So there is something more going on there… Your mother said that she would take care of it personally… for you and your sister… who by the way… are waiting for you downstairs… for some kind of family meeting… I’m your relief for guarding this ship… Between me and flyboy here… we should be able to get this thing situated in a hanger at Shield West Coast HQ…
Lady Sif heads down to see what her mother has in store for her and her sister. She finds her sister Dr. Laufey sitting next to her mother on the couch in mid lecture, as Ward and little Karny Girl sit on the edge of the bed listening. Meghan sits on the floor trying not to get wrapped up in the negative emotion exchanged.
Queen K:
I just don’t see why you should seem to act so ashamed of me… and your legacy… You were never ever so ashamed of your father… and his legacy…
Dr. Laufey:
I’m not ashamed mother… I simply wish to be anonymous here on Midgard… and avoid any unnecessary political entanglement…
Lady Sif:
With war upon us sister… we may not have such luxuries as that… I’m afraid there are no such luxuries… as that sort of detachment…
Queen K:
Quite right!… And I need you… And your sister needs you… even if she may not know it yet… And you should both understand how your niece needs you without me having to point it out to you… The war needs diplomacy… And I need you two for that diplomacy… Even my granddaughter and my son in law… This is a sacred duty for us as a family… And we shall see it done as a family… as soon as Dir. Mace wakes up…
Dr. Laufey:
If he wakes up!…
Queen K:
Hush!… Spoiled child!… Do not presume to doubt me… your teacher… In this war you two will both have need of my legacy… the same legacy that I already gave to Director Mace…
Dr. Laufey:
Wait!… Director Mace?…
Before either Lady Sif or Dr. Laufey can react or argue, Queen Karnilla wields her magic box now in the form of a matte black wand, and points it at her daughters. The sisters are gripped and seized by purple lightening held in place while black boxes form in the air in front of each of them, suspended by purple lightening, with white sparkles transferring over to form them as before. Once fully formed, the white sparkles fade away, and the purple lightening disappears in purple flash, dropping the sisters and their respective boxes to the floor, unconscious.
Meghan:
You’re not gonna zap me too are you?…
Queen K:
No my dear Princess Meghan… You’re complicated enough already as it is…
Meghan:
Thank you your majesty…
Queen K:
Help my son in law get them on the bed so that they can sleep it off…
Meghan:
Yes your majesty…
Ward and Meghan place them on the bed, and the queen motions for Ward to take his place on the couch next to her.
Queen K:
Now you on the other hand… I may have to zap extra harder…
Ward:
Honestly your majesty… Go ahead and zap away… But I can’t see that helping me necessarily… My karma is not that good…
Queen K:
I’ll be the judge of that… My daughter and I have been discussing your case… I know you suffer from an excess of alien foreign memory as it is… So I will not over burden you further… But master Fitz’s invention may have a solution for you… with a little help from me… I cannot make the memories go away entirely… Nor would that do justice to the other victims of Hive… But Fitz’s device may yet give you a safe and manageable place to keep them outside your own head… So that you can deal with just your own guilt… instead of dealing the guilt of countless ghosts living inside your head uninvited… Now hold out your palms…
Ward holds out his palms, as the queen holds his right hand in her left, and holds her black wand up to his forehead. The black wand begins to take on the white sparkles of the nanotech replication process, and begins to form a black cube in the palm of Ward’s left palm. An arc of purple lightening forms connecting Ward’s forehead with the queen’s black wand, and with the new black cube forming in Ward’s palm. The purple arc and the white sparkles all disappear, leaving a new matte black cube behind in Ward’s palm.
Ward:
Wow… That didn’t hurt at all… And I think… I can actually think more clearly now…
Ward’s Box:
Well I should certainly hope so… That’s about as close to divine intervention as you’re ever going to get…
Ward:
Will?… Is that you?… coming from… the box?…
Box Will:
Yes… It seems that we’re all in here now… But I seem to be in charge… in here at least…
A holographic display pops up above the cube, and takes the shape of a glowing translucent bust of the astronaut Will Daniels, who was stranded on the planet Maveth with Dr. Jemma Simmons, before being turned into a host for Hive, and having all of his memories absorbed in the process, right before Hive did the same to Ward.
Ward:
No offense but… better in there than in here…
Box Will:
Oh I agree… In here we can actually do things… for the war… for earth… for Jemma… And your head was kind of messed up to begin with…
Ward:
I’ll say… Hey…
Daisy rushes up the stairs no longer able to respect the privacy of the family meeting after hearing the thunderous commotion from the queen’s gift to her daughters. Daisy storms into the room with both of her sais drawn, now back wearing one of her leather jackets with a leather skirt and tactical boots.
Daisy:
What was that?… Did that come from here?… What happened to Lady Sif and Dr. Laufey?… Was there another attack?…
Queen K:
Take it easy Daisy Johnson… They are simply sleeping off my gift to them… They will be fine in time… just as Dir. Mace will be… whenever they wake up… But we need to talk about you… Daisy Johnson… When the Kree came looking for you by name… I sort of adopted you in the name of Nornheim… for all intents and purposes… I have been operating on a set of presumptions… that I would not prefer to persist in without your say so… But if I may be so presumptions to say so… we need each other… rogue agent Daisy Johnson… I would like to formerly offer you a commission of Nornheim… Like Master Fitz… And my son in law Ward here… Under the special restrictions of Midgard… known as the Sechovia Accords… you may find it difficult to operate without credentials of some kind… And you may not realize it… But we have been allies since before you were even born… Lord Balder and I both have been fighting against this Dark Priestess for centuries ourselves… No matter how powerful you may be… you will need allies against your mother… And I have resources… gifts even…
Ward:
Fitz made these… what are they called again?…
Queen K:
He was calling it a Fitz Simmons Box… Because his partner Dr. Simmons dreamed it up with him years ago… I only added the dark magic… and the glorified Asgardian arts and crafts as he calls it… I believe it may even augment the power of prophecy of Nornheim… being itself a merger of such techniques… Such powers as this are the product of forbidden magic… and as such are also forbidden… Allowable only under the conditions of sacred war… now upon us all… But even then it is not to be entrusted to just anyone… And the authorities of Midgard may object to such a weapon being possessed by a rogue Shield agent… But not so much a knight of Nornheim…
Daisy:
You drive a hard bargain your majesty… I’m game on one condition… I don’t follow his orders!… Ever!… That’s a deal breaker!… I don’t care if he is your son in law!…
Queen K:
If anything… he’ll have to follow your orders… But you’ll both have to follow Master Fitz’s… I have yet to discuss the matter of a commission with Dr. Simmons… or the one known as Yo Yo… and the others…
Daisy:
Very well then… Do I have to sign in blood or something?…
Queen K:
Not unless you want to be more traditional… I’m kidding… Do you have any experience with magic?… Master Fitz said… that your background as something called a hacker… would make you a good candidate for one of his boxes… It ideally requires… some background in magic… and or technology… as you call it…
Daisy:
My mother taught me… or… downloaded it into me… from someone named Electra… who got hers… from someone called Ogun… some sort of sorcerer… of The Hand…
Queen K:
You have shown a remarkable resilience to the darkness of your mother Daisy Johnson… Many who have succumbed as you have… are never the same… if they ever recover at all… Please… come here…
Daisy walks over and awkwardly kneels before the queen.
Daisy:
Do I have to kneel for this?…
Queen K:
If you like… Hold out you palms…
Daisy holds out her hands palms up before the queen. The queen holds her black wand in her left hand while holding Daisy’s left hand in her right. The queen’s wand begins to emit the familiar white sparkles of Asgardian dark magic nanotech replication, forming another matte black cube in Daisy’s empty right palm. After the new matte black cube fully forms, and the white sparkles all fade away, the new matte black cube in Daisy’s palm shape shifts into a matte black tuning fork, and starts to hum softly at first, before growing louder.
Daisy:
Woh… What’s it doing?…
Lady Sif and Dr. Laufey are roused to waking by the loud hum, while simultaneously, Directer Mace wakes up in the downstairs basement med lab.
Queen K:
You’re a natural… when it comes to Master Fitz’s creation… You shall be a powerful knight of Nornheim indeed… And perhaps in time… a powerful rival sorceress… a rival to the power of your mother…
Daisy’s hum dies down but not before resonating through the building and being heard by Dr. Simmons, settling in to quarters she and Fitz chose before he left with the Kree war shuttle and Captain Brian, by taking the opportunity to soak for another long hot bath, as she gets to know her new toy. She soaks in her bath, holding her matte black wand in her hand as it shape shifts into a matte black dagger in her hand. Amused by this, she uses the matte black dagger to slice open her palm, getting her blood all over the dagger. The matte black dagger absorbs her blood and then begins to emit a red shimmery sparkle, as it shape shifts again into a matte black spider, covered in slowly fading red sparkles in her bloody palm. Dr. Simmons giggles with unnatural glee as she licks her bloody palm, and her new pet spider begins to speak.
Black Spider:
Madame?… Does madame require… blood?… What manner of service… does madame require?…
Dr. Simmons:
Madame does require blood… But that’s a separate matter… That’ll be our little secret… Right now Madame requires processing power… and discretion… Not even master Fitz can know about our special secret research project… Now… Go over and fetch the flash drive in my jacket pocket on the chair…
The matte black spider’s compound eyes glow red, as it comes to life and hops off of Dr. Simmons hand, creeps over to Dr. Simmons jacket, and digs out the flash drive in question.
Dr. Simmons:
Can you access the data?…
Black Spider:
Completely…
Dr. Simmons:
Good… Copy it completely… Absorb and assimilate all of it’s data… My access only… Then destroy the physical flash drive utterly…
The black spider quickly destroys the physical flash drive, then hops back over to the floor next to the side of the tub, as Dr. Simmons leans out over the side of the tub to get a closer look at her new minion.
Dr. Simmons:
How do I best maximize your processing power?…
Black Spider:
Madame… Maximum processing power of any given Fitz Simmons Box… can only vary within the maximum theoretical performance envelope of Fitz Simmons Boxes in general…
Dr. Simmons:
Fitz Simmons Boxes?…
Black Spider:
Yes madame… That is what a unit of this type is called… Any given box is limited by the standard parameters of any given such box… greater total capacity may be had by increasing the number of such boxes… and combining their computational power… by networking them together… using complex parallel distributed processing… among multiple such computational nodes… as a combined computational hive… like a Linux Beowulf Cluster… for example… Would you like a Beowulf Cluster madame?…
Dr. Simmons:
Maybe later… Can you make more of yourself?…
Black Spider:
Yes madame… Many more… depending on available energy… resources… time… and raw material…
Dr. Simmons:
And they’ll all answer only to me?…
Black Spider:
Yes madame… genetically keyed to you and your DNA alone at the point of creation… unless you bond a new device to a new recipient specifically… How many more do desire?…
Dr. Simmons:
As many as you can make for me… But discretely… I can’t afford to get caught just yet… Get started… Be fruitful and multiply… spider friend… my spider friends… I really need to come up with a better name to call you guys… Spider Minions?… Isty Bitsy Minions perhaps?… How did you even know to take the shape of a spider to begin with?… or a dagger… or even a wand… I gave no command for any of that… I think Fitz said that the interface was telepathic… Some sort of dark magic I suppose… Can you read my mind?…
Black Spider:
Yes madame… In a manner of speaking… I am your mind reflected back at you… through the prism of the interface…
Dr. Simmons:
Is that a two way street?… Can I absorb knowledge and information from you?…
Black Spider:
Yes madame… Although it may be more difficult and exhausting to do so… excessively taxing upon the human brain…
Dr. Simmons:
What if we’re not human any more?…
Black Spider:
Unknown madame…
Dr. Simmons:
Try it… Try it now… How does that work?…
Black Spider:
Attempt in progress madame…
The black spider hops up onto the top of Dr. Simmons head as she lays back in the tub. Red sparkles emanates from all over the surface of the black spider above Dr. Simmons forehead. The red sparkles begin to lift off of the surface of the black spider on Dr. Simmons forehead, and start to form two more similar sized black spiders, one on each of her shoulders, as they all begin to emit a low smoldering red glow.
Dr. Simmons:
I… I can see it… the contents from the flash drive… I can see it in my head…
Black Spiders:
Yes madame… Would you like to stop?… Or would you prefer to continue?…
Dr. Simmons:
Continue!… Continue!… Whatever you do don’t stop!… I want more!… There’s more in here too… Asgardian grimoires… ship specs… alien languages… I want it all!… I want more processing power… Consume everything in this room if you have too!… I want more nodes!… Oh my!… I’m picking up on Daisy’s wifi… She has a really good connection… Can’t say I’m surprised… We’re starting a special research project… Everything from that flash drive… will be a part of something we’ll just call… The Cure… I will need a confidential ID for research purposes on the web… Madame Web… Right spider minions?…
Black Spiders:
Yes Madame Web…
Dr. Simmons:
While we’re at it… we’ll start another project… Cracked Shield… I want to know why we were all sacked and hung out to dry… And we’ll also start a deep profile project… Wolf’s Bane… dedicated to deep background on Grant Ward… werewolves… wolfkin… The Hand… Hydra… or anything tied politically… historically… or even linguistically… to any of that… Collate… Curate… Absorb… And assimilate… Replicate and expand… Then redouble efforts…
Black Spiders:
Yes Madame Web…
At a Shield West Coast hanger, the Kree war shuttle resides in it’s new home surrounded by busy Shield techs. A middle aged US Air Force general, with black hair in a short high and tight hair cut and a mustache, argues with Fitz and Captain Brian as the Shield R&D team go to work.
Fitz:
What do you mean you don’t know why we were sacked?… You’re a uniform part of the new oversight council of Shield… Part of Shield’s re-establishment… You helped implement the policy!…
General:
That doesn’t mean that I decided the details of the policy… Neither me nor Dir. Mace… had anything to do with that… Mace is still trying to figure that one out… He’s the more political savvy of the two of us… a bit of a desk jockey… But I’ve been there myself… I’ll vouch for him… He’s well trained… And he’s not a part of whatever swept through the minds of the politicians all of a sudden… Jeffrey was supposed to replace Coulson anyway… But purging the ranks was never part of the original plan… trusted loyal Inhuman agents… like agent Rodriguez… even the cyborg agent… Mike Peterson… all cast out… without any real explanation other than… some flimsy interpretation of the Sechovia Accords and bunch of glorified focus group out of focus hocus pocus…
Fitz:
So why was I sacked then General Talbot?… I’m not a cyborg… or an Inhuman… If their purging anything out of the ordinary… why me?…
Gen. Talbot:
Your name was just on a Coulson related list of names that came from somewhere out of deep intel… A group burn notice… to be considered unavoidably compromised… no explanation… Coulson and company were supposed to stay on… till that list came through along with the news that Dir. Coulson had disappeared…
Fitz:
Coulson was kidnapped!…
Gen. Talbot:
That’s not how they spun it with the list… Look… Just cool it… Both of you… You’ve landed on your feet… Not everyone is so lucky… Dir. Mace and I are tap dancing as best as we can… while we’re trying to find out what’s going on with Shield… I can’t even begin to imagine why the Weird Happenings Organization was also effected by the purge… But I’m sure we’ll hear about it eventually…
Fitz:
To hell with the cracked Shield… And your mate… is not my director…
Coulson:
I used to be… But I see they haven’t changed the locks yet at least…
Fitz:
Coulson!…
Gen. Talbot:
Coulson!… Where have you been?… What happened to you?…
Coulson:
Believe it or not… I got Shanghaied by demon ninjas… I’ve been playing catch up ever since… Cool box Fitz… Is that something that might come in handy?… Something new of yours I bet… Is that how you got the ship here?… You built yourself a cheat didn’t you?… I knew that if I caught up with you… you were bound to have something interesting… You never disappoint do you Fitz?… So how does it work?…
Fitz:
Here… Show me your palms… And I’ll show you how it works…
Coulson walks over and gleefully complies. Fitz puts his black box on the palm of Coulson’s real right hand, and causes a new black box to form in the already artificial left hand of the man Fitz knows as Coulson. The new black box begins to melt into Coulson’s artificial hand and take it over.
Fitz:
I had some time to prepare some upgrades just for you… an extra interface that utilizes the cybernetic connections already there… for a stronger overall connection…
Coulson:
Wait… What?…
The surface of Coulson’s artificial hand is taken over completely by a matte black appearance, before turning flesh colored and softening.
Coulson:
Get out!…
Fitz:
Coulson?…
Coulson:
Get out of my head!…
Coulson suddenly clutches his left hand with his right, and seems to struggle with himself. His left hand clenches into a fist and turns matte black again, and a holographic display of Ogun’s grinning white demon mask appears in the air above the matte black clenched fist, and a demonic cackle erupts from Coulson’s hand and the surrounding walls.
Ogun:
I don’t know what dark magic or trickery you managed to pull on me… But you won’t subdue me for long… This just makes the ride more interesting… This prison of yours won’t hold me forever… It took the Black Queen Selene herself… to bind me to you… The immortal sorcerer Ogun needs nothing but time… and for the natural chaos of fate to take it’s course…
Coulson:
Fitz!… How did you know?…
Fitz:
Know what?!?… What in the bloody hell was that?!?…
Coulson passes out, and the hologram disappears, but the artificial hand remains matte black. Fitz insists on relocating the passed out Coulson, with his matte black hand, for examination under guard at the Johnson Building’s basement med lab. Gen. Talbot agrees out of a general security concern for the circumstances at Shield, and rides along with the sleeping Coulson to the Johnson Building. Fitz issues marching orders and Fitz Simmons Boxes to every member of his hand picked Shield R&D team, then he and Capt. Braddock make an impromptu test flight, to park the Kree war shuttle back on top of Daisy’s roof, for the convenience and security of the queen and her property, in light of concerns about Shield.
Coulson is strapped unconscious to a med lab bed in Daisy’s basement, as Dr. Laufey examines him and the matte black nanotech hand, now fused to it’s socket, partially integrated into the surrounding flesh remaining from when his original hand was amputated. Dr. Simmons assists Dr. Laufey, as Queen Karnilla closely observes the Son of Coul. Daisy, Ward, and Fitz look on with Capt. Brian, Gen. Talbot, Dir. Mace, and Lady Sif.
Dr. Simmons:
Why is this FSB nanotech fused to his arm?… Did you design it to do that?…
Fitz:
No!… But I also didn’t design it to speak on behalf of immortal sorcerers neither!…
Ward:
Maybe it exorcised it… Like your little black box did for me… with the queen… Maybe Coulson did that… Fighting him off… You said he screamed… ‘get out’… ‘get out of my head’… I’m no expert on magic or tech… But it sounds to me like Coulson used this FSB tech to fight off this… Ogun?…
Queen K:
That would be a reasonable hypothesis… if the former director were versed in magic to some extent… or even just technology… But that is not the case with the Son of Coul… as far as I know…
Fitz:
I made upgrades specifically for Coulson… to integrate the FSB into his artificial hand… using his existing cybernetic interface for greater control… That’s the only difference for the unit that I made for Coulson… As soon as it integrated with his prosthetic… It became a part of him… the real him… and he somehow used it to regain control it seems… The holographic apparition of Ogun… said that the Black Queen Selene… bound him to Coulson… When Coulson tried to use the hand instinctively to expel him… it seems to have fused itself to him… as if to enforce the binding… like some sort of bloody pernicious and irremovable malware from hell… quite literally…
Dr. Laufey:
Who’s to say exactly how or when the mad demon sorcerer Ogun became attached to him… But it certainly wasn’t before he was abducted by The Hand… along with Dr. Simmons here…
Dr. Simmons:
Well we were separated early… woke up that way really… If it weren’t for May… who knows what would have happened… To think that Ogun was playing us… So you didn’t design it to integrate with human flesh?… But it did it anyway?… To enforce a curse?… Talk about alien hybrid dark magic tech… That’s almost like a more stable Extremis… Perhaps an FSB can stabilize and regulate Extremis… Imagine the possibilities… Discovery requires experimentation…
Fitz:
You did not just quote bloody Dr. Whitehall to us!… A bloody Hydra scientist!?!… You’ve spent too much time in a lab without fresh air… Perhaps you really do have PTSD…
Gen. Talbot:
Wait… back that up a bit… What was that you just said?… about stabilizing Extremis?… Is that really possible?…
Dr. Simmons:
Certainly… Fitz and I have studied Extremis in the past… As it was part of the Centipede Serum… a product of an illegal Hydra super soldier program… Before that the original Extremis was a product of fringe science and illegal human experimentation… by a corrupt think tank named Advanced Idea Mechanics… It was a big scandal at the time when it came out… bringing down the American vice president… FSBs could stabilize Extremis… But that sort of human experimentation would never be allowed again… right?…
Gen. Talbot:
Certainly never again!…
Dir. Mace:
Certainly… But what about Coulson?… Before the burn notice came through without explanation… I was hoping for Coulson to be a key advisor in the new Shield… Now it sounds like he really is irrevocably compromised… As least as far as the politicians are concerned… There’s no way I can spin this to reverse that now… Perhaps it’s for the best… til we we know better why… But it looks like we can’t rely on any help from Coulson for that… Unless the queen knows of some way…
Queen K:
I’m afraid there will be no easy way of that… If the black queen herself bound the demon to him… Containing the pernicious spirit in this black hand of his… may be the only remedy available to him…
Dir. Mace:
Well… I’ll leave that to more capable hands… But Gen. Talbot and I will need to deal with the politicians and the rest of Shield… Preparations for war won’t wait… And that will require both diplomacy and bureaucracy… both of them tedious… both of them requiring your majesty’s help… But we have to make the arrangements… Gen. Talbot…
Director Mace and General Talbot leave and make their way up to the gallery where the broken glass is being replaced by bullet proof blast glass.
Dr. Simmons:
Well we can’t solve everything all at once… And my boyfriend is in dire need of a shaving and a bathing… No more arguments… Busybody… Coulson is out cold… And in excellent hands with Dr. Laufey… Come along!… No more arguments!…
Dr. Simmons shoos her boyfriend upstairs for a shave and a bath, among other things.
Queen K:
Well Lady Amora… as you are well versed in the healing arts of Midgard… I will leave the Son of Coul to you… There will be nothing to do until he wakes up anyway… Master Fitz has given me an assignment… something only I can do for myself if I want to take and keep proper ownership of my war shuttle… But he suggested that Lady Sif and my son in law help me out with it… He gave me instructions with his… Fitz Simmons Box… But I will need your help and participation for this… for family security purposes…
Queen Karnilla leads her daughter Lady Sif and her son in law up to her war shuttle on the roof, leaving Capt. Brian and Daisy to guard over Dr. Laufey and Coulson, while a matte black cube floats and gently spins in the palm of Brian’s hand as he watches them. They pass the Dir. Mace and Gen. Talbot in the stairwell trying to have a private conversation, which they immediately hush when the queen and company pass, with Dir. Mace giving a grin and a nod to the queen as she passes. The director and the general make their way into the garage for some privacy among the motorcycles.
Dir. Mace:
This could be exactly what you need to finally get back off the sideline… just like you always talked about… You heard Dr. Simmons… This could help regulate you… and stabilize you… And I need you… This thing is new to me… But I know it can work for you…
Dir. Mace holds out his matte black FSB cube.
Dir. Mace:
I can almost feel it making me even stronger… as if it’s increasing the efficiency of what’s already there… I can’t give this out to just anyone anyway… But I need to give it to a few… And you’re a perfect candidate… Even more so than me… without the queen’s download… I might not be able to control this thing at all…
Gen. Talbot:
Wait… What do mean… the queen’s download?…
Dir. Mace:
The queen… gave me her memories… when she gave me the FSB…
Gen. Talbot:
That sounds like some seriously whacked out alien brain STD… You don’t have feelings for this woman… Do you?… Are you compromised?…
Dir. Mace:
Honestly… Yes… and probably… She gave me all of her memories… I was complaining about not knowing the history… trying to play catch up… She has extensive knowledge of history… So she gave me a short cut… a very intimate shortcut… I mean… She gave me all of her memories… even her childhood ones… Either she really likes me… Or she really trusts me…
Gen. Talbot:
Or she really wants you to trust her… Or wants you to really like her…
Dir. Mace:
Either way… I’m unavoidably at least partly compromised… And necessarily so in my view… under the circumstances… But as part of oversight I have to tell this to someone… And you’re my wing man here… Remember?… That was how you talked me into this gig… And as such… I need you to take one more additional step out on a limb with me… I don’t expect you to take on a potentially compromising psychic download… I’ve already taken that risk well enough for the both of us… But I will need your help out on the front lines of this war… And I will need your help with the distribution and management of these things anyway… With these FSBs… you have the necessary technical background… And as a former Hulk Buster… you certainly have loads of unique and irreplaceable experience… With your condition… it is a risk… But I’m handling it just fine… And I believe you can too… It could be exactly what you need… And I need you to…
Gen. Talbot:
Alright director… Whatever you need from me… I’m your wing man… Like I said… But if I blow up… You’re explaining this to my wife… What do I do?… How does this work?… It’s supposed to have a genetic key lock… You don’t need any of my blood do you?…
Dir. Mace:
No… Just just hold out your hands… palms up…
Gen. Talbot does as instructed, and Dir. Mace puts his matte black cube in the palm of one of the general’s hands, and white sparkles form a new matte black cube in the palm of the general’s other hand. When the white sparkles die down and leave a fully formed matte black cube, the new matte black cube and General Talbot’s eyes and skin, all begin to pulsate with an orange red glow, visually reminiscent of Extremis over heating slightly. Then the black cube and Gen. Talbot begin to emit a pulsating blue glow, before dying down completely.
Gen. Talbot:
It worked!… I didn’t blow up!…
Dir. Mace:
Congratulations… You live… Now we have to get back to work…
Gen. Talbot:
Slave driver… You don’t get what this means to me and my family!… You’re already stable!…
Dir. Mace:
Only after spending over a year in a coma… I was a fluke… And you were effectively sidelined by your condition… But now we both have our chance… And war isn’t giving us any choices… I’m afraid I’m calling you off the sidelines whether you like how it’s done or not… Like I said… I need you… You’re my wing man… Remember that…
Gen. Talbot:
I’ll remember… I’ll never forget… I never forget that sort of thing… Not without a bullet to the brain… And probably not even then…
Dir. Mace:
Probably not…
Queen Karnilla, Lady Sif, and Grant Ward make their way up to the roof to manage the Queen’s prize shuttle.
Ward:
So what are we supposed to be doing exactly?… your majesty…
Queen K:
You needn’t be so formal with me… son in law… We are family after all…
Ward:
That’s great an all… But with all due respect… I just kind of like saying… your majesty… Especially since I feel like I owe you my sanity… You and Fitz Simmons…
Queen K:
Very well Master Ward… knight of Nornheim… wolfkin prince of Midgard… We have as our task using these charms of Master Fitz devising… to take over and enhance… And possibly replicate… this prize of war… Master Fitz left me instructions… And special type of magic spell… called… an algorithm… For security reasons… it must be the three of us that perform this task… Now… I need both of you… to use your Fitz Simmons Box’s replication function… to make one additional box each… like so…
The queen leads by example and holds her matte black wand over a spot on the surface of the roof. White sparkles emanate from her wand, and form a small matte black cube on the spot. Lady Sif effortlessly follows suit, likewise producing another matte black cube next to the first.
Ward:
What?… Just like that?… No magic words?… I thought these things were supposed to be responsive… Will!… Wake up in there!…
FSB Will:
I’m here… I’m here… I just figured that you might not want me piping up randomly when you’re having family time… Let me see if I can do that…
Ward holds his matte black cube FSB over the area where the other two lie. White sparkles begin to emanate from Ward’s FSB, and form another one next to the other two.
Ward:
Alright Will!… What’s next?…
Queen K:
Now we take them inside the craft… And upgrade it with our FSBs… And then we’ll take my prize for a little cruise…
Karny Girl:
Not without me you’re not!…
Meghan:
Me neither!…
Lady Sif:
This is not pleasure cruise Princess Meghan… and not for little girls…
Karny Girl and Princess Meghan walk up behind them, along with Snoopy.
Queen K:
Karny Girl… Princess Meghan… We are not going for a sight seeing tour… But if you behave yourselves… and promise not touch anything… you can come along… We can better keep an eye on you both that way anyway…
Meghan:
What do you mean both?…
Queen and company file into the open hatch of the captured Kree war shuttle, Snoopy in tow, with the queen herself carrying the three new FSBs. The queen places the three of them on the dash of the cockpit, as she directs Lady Sif to take her seat at navigation on the right, and directs Ward to take the pilot seat on the left. The queen taps her wand on the top of each of the three cubes and they melt into the console. They melt into and spread through the console and every surface of the inside, and then the outside, of her majesty’s shuttle, covered in white sparkles as they change. They turn every inside surface matte black with glowing red characters, translated from Kree to Asgardian. The outside is seemingly painted Nornheim Imperial Purple, with the gold crest of Nornheim placed prominently on each side. The queen and the others take their seats behind the two in front, with little Karny sitting on her grandmother’s lap, as the hatch closes on the shuttle.
Queen K:
Cascading nanotech metamorphosis… That’s what Master Fitz called it… An algorithm of mutually coordinated nanotech reformation… The nanotech as he calls it… colonizes and consumes everything of the target object in question… all the while measuring copying and upgrading at the same time… producing an upgraded version… while simultaneously producing a design that can be replicated exactly as the upgraded version… using the very same so-called nanotech… allowing for what he calls… mass production?… for the war… By us using our FSBs… the war shuttle remains irrevocably under our control… I needed to use mine in order to assert and maintain my claim to the vessel… I wanted you two in particular to do this with me… So you could help me use and manage it as needed for the war in my stead… Now… My daughter Lady Amora tells me that your supposed to be something of a pilot… And the Lady Sif here is always bragging about her navigational skills… Show me that my confidence is not misplaced… and give me a brief tour of the far side of the moon… Master Fitz also said something about… field testing upgraded scanners… He did say that it was largely automatic though… But we have to give the ship something to scan…
Ward:
The moon?… Your majesty?… Are you sure about… the moon?… Sorry… Maybe I’m just being superstitious… being a werewolf and all… Sorry… I just get this… sense of foreboding about the moon… ever since I… you know… came back from the dead and all… Sorry…
Lady Sif:
The moon is of absolute strategic importance to the security of Midgard… It is the ultimate high ground… relative to Midgard… Short of being in one of the other nine realms…
Meghan:
Are we really going to the moon?… I’ve never seen the moon before!… Not up close anyway…
Karny Girl:
It’s not actually made of cheese you know… That’s just a silly kids joke…
Meghan:
I know that!… It’s made of moon rocks silly… You can get those from this magical place… called Ebay… Brian let’s me use his credit card… But we have too much stuff now… So I can’t bring home any more moon rocks… Do you like moon rocks?…
Karny Girl:
I like Pop Rocks…
Meghan:
Oooh… Pop Rocks are tasty… And they go pop…
Ward:
I think my head is about to go pop… Figure of speech… I think… Sorry…
The crew of the queen’s shuttle depart for the far side of the moon, and give the queen’s new shuttle a shake down cruise, if not a three hour tour. A clean shaven but still shaggy headed Fitz lies naked in a steaming bath with Dr. Simmons, with two bleeding puncture marks on Fitz neck, as they both lie passed out in the hot water, although for different reasons. Dr. Simmons awakens with a start, realizing what she has done and frantically feels for a pulse. She finds it and then sighs in relief, as she begins to open her own wrist to offer her blood to Fitz to turn him, but stops herself. She then jumps out of the tub in disgust with herself.
Dr. Simmons:
What am I doing?… What am I thinking?… What have I already done?… Minions!… Minions!… I need my Minions!…
Numerous matte black spiders come crawling out from the shadows and furniture within the room, and from the adjacent rooms.
Spider Minions:
Yes Madame Web… We serve and obey Madame Web…
Dr. Simmons:
Hurry!… Engage Rescue Fitz Protocol immediately!… Prepare the Black Box Extremis for injection… Hack his FSB… And give me control…
Spider Minions:
Yes Madame Web… His FSB is yours… And we already have enough emergency rescue solution on standby to begin immediately… Pleas note Madame Web… This is experimental… Does Madame Web still wish to proceed?…
Dr. Simmons:
Yes!… Damn you!… Hurry!… I just hope that I haven’t already effectively bloody killed him!… I can’t ever allow that to happen again!… I’m going to need a permanent solution… I’ll need to replicate some more of his own FSB nodes… to help regulate his system… Tap into the main power if you have to!… There is no point in hiding anymore!… Nothing else but saving Fitz matters right now!… I’ll need more processing power!… More nodes!… More bloody minions!… Consume everything in site if you have to!…
Spider Minions:
Yes Madame Web… We serve and obey Madame Web…
The bloody spider minions converge upon Fitz and Simmons, surrounding them with numerous matte black spiders with glowing red eyes. One such spider hops up on top of Dr. Simmons head. Two more hop up on her naked shoulders. Various others pile on covering Dr. Simmons in a virtual gown of matte black spiders, all connected together in a web of processing power. The matte black spiders surrounding Fitz form long matte black needles, and begin to inject something into Fitz, as they and Fitz begin to emit a pulsating blue glow. Numerous other matte black spiders pile on to Fitz as he lies in the now boiling bath water, all emitting the same pulsating blue glow, and forming a virtual chrysalis of matte black spiders, piled on top of Fitz like some sort of matte black spider rugby scrum.
Downstairs Dir. Mace and Gen. Talbot rejoin Dr. Laufey, still looking after Coulson, sleeping and strapped to a bed, with Daisy and Capt. Brian keeping watch. A matte black tuning fork now hangs up side down attached to a matte black chain around Daisy’s neck, as Capt. Brian practices his control twirling his little cube floating in his palm. Capt. Brian’s floating cube and Daisy’s tuning fork begin to emit a pulsating blue glow, as Dir. Mace and Gen. Talbot join them, as does Coulson’s now fused matte black hand. Dr. Laufey pulls out her matte black wand out from her lab coat to find it pulsating blue. Daisy clutches her tuning fork.
Gen. Talbot:
Did I do that?…
Daisy:
Why would you have done that?… How would you have done that?…
Dr. Laufey:
It seems to be something resonating in kind with our FSBs… something from upstairs…
Daisy:
Fitz and Simmons?…
Ogun:
Yes… I can feel it… I knew she would be interesting…
Daisy:
What?… Simmons!?!…
Daisy rushes up the stairs to check on her friends, driven into a panic by the disembodied voice of Ogun, with Dr. Laufey chasing after her, followed by the others, while Coulson still sleeps. Daisy rushes to the door to Fitz and Simmons unit, and tries to barge in only to find the door locked shut.
Daisy:
Fitz!… Simmons!… Dammit!… Fitz!… Simmons!…
Daisy draws her sais out from inside her leather jacket and uses her power to vibrate the door to pieces and break in, as the others follow in behind her. They find Fitz and Simmons covered in spider minions, along with the floor and the walls, all mostly matte black, but pulsating with a blue glow. Daisy attacks the spiders with her power, vibrating through her sais, plowing a path through them, and between Fitz and Dr. Simmons. Then she attempts to use her power through her sais again, one targeting the spiders on Fitz, the other targeting the spiders on Dr. Simmons, attempting to break the spiders off of the two of them. The pulsating blue glow intensifies on the remaining spiders, and Daisy’s attack just bounces off of them, and shakes the building instead.
Daisy ramps up her power for another shot, and shatters the spiders off of Fitz and Simmons, but shatters a number of key supports in the process. The building begins to tremble as a prelude to crumbling under it’s own weight. Dr. Simmons lies unconscious on the floor and Fitz is still pulsating blue unconscious in the tub, but with the water no longer boiling as the building trembles. Daisy panics as her daddy’s building is about to collapse with her friends in it. She panics. And then she handles it.
Daisy:
Dammit!… No!… Not Dad’s building!… I refuse!… to lose!… everything!…
Daisy holds up her sais as they start vibrating loudly, seemingly adding to the tremors shaking everything apart, but resonating with the matte black tuning fork around her neck, causing the matte black tuning fork and it’s matte black chain to rapidly emit white sparkles, streaming into the support structure of the building, colonizing it and repairing the support structure of the building, turning the building into one giant Fitz Simmons Box. Daisy passes out drained from the exertion and the stress.
Cap. Brian carries Daisy up to sleep it off in her own bed. Under Dr. Laufey’s supervision, Dir. Mace and Gen. Talbot carry the unconscious Fitz and Simmons downstairs to the med lab, with Fitz no longer glowing, only to find that Coulson has now gone missing. Fitz and Dr. Simmons get strapped into the beds as a safety precaution, as Dr. Laufey examines the two of them and finds Dr. Simmons’ fangs.
Dr. Laufey:
Oh dear… More bad news I’m afraid Dir. Mace… At some point after her abduction by The Hand… Dr. Simmons was turned… into a vampire… a treachery of Ogun perhaps… before he lost favor with the Black Queen for some reason… Under that influence… there is no telling exactly what she did to Master Fitz… It seems to be some form of Extremis… but stable… She seems to have done at least something in common to Fitz and herself… I can tell with my FSB… that She has used her FSBs to colonize and replace her own bones… So that they cannot be removed… And she has used her FSBs to hack Fitz’s FSBs… to do the same to him… Dr. Simmons has done to their bones… what Daisy has done with this building… Coulson escaped… presumably under Ogun’s control… We’ll have to wait for Dr. Simmons or Master Fitz to wake up… before we’ll really know what happened in that room…
Dir. Mace:
I would put in a call to find and apprehend Coulson… But that may just complicate our situation… Coulson got control back once… I would prefer to give him a chance to do it again… if I can… for now… We need to get to the bottom of what happened with these two… I think I can safely speak for Daisy when I say she’ll want answers here…
Daisy:
I think I can speak for myself when I agree…
Daisy and Capt. Brian appear from behind as they talk, having made their way downstairs after them, with Daisy clutching at her matte black tuning fork necklace.
Captain Brain:
I couldn’t get her to rest… Another hopeless case…
Daisy:
I’m tired of rest!… And I’m tired of surprises!… I do want to know what’s going on with them… But right now I want to know about you two… I just turned this entire building into one giant black magic nanotech supercomputer… And it won’t stop gibbering in my ear about Extremis!… And not just about Fitz… Spill you two!… What do you know about this?… Why are you two buzzing in my ear just like Fitz is now?… I noticed it before… But I thought I was imagining it… But now Fitz is making that noise… And we know that’s Extremis…
Gen. Talbot:
Relax… We don’t know any more about what happened between those two… than you do… But we do know a few things about Extremis… Dir. Mace and I… were a part of the original experiment… We thought it was a legitimate project… Signed up for through the Hero program at Darpa… I was recruited by Jeffery because of my injuries with the Hulk Buster Task Force… Jeffery here was recruited by none other than the vice president of the United States… who suggested talking me into it… No one suspected then… that the project… Advanced Idea Mechanics… and the vice president… were all corrupt… And that the project itself was illegal… and linked to terrorism… Jeffery here was a bit of a fluke… developing much more power… and stabilizing at the higher level… But only after being in a coma for over a year… teetering on the edge of overload… and potentially exploding… Me… I was a more typical result for the experiment… always worried about running a little too hot… Being dependent on continued dosing… while trying to not over do it… and explode… or do it too little… and suffer painful withdrawal… A difficult problem to regulate… which has sidelined me from doing the kind of field work that I did with the Hulk Busters… But this little miracle box may have just solved all of my problems for me… But only time will tell… But we had nothing to do with what just happened except that… in my zeal for a solution for myself… I may have accidentally whispered in the ear of the wrong mad scientist… But I was just asking questions… I had no idea she would go all Dr. Frankenstein on her own boyfriend… We know what it’s like to be guinea pigs… We wouldn’t want that for anyone…
Dr. Simmons:
No one would ever want that… He’ll never forgive me… He’ll never forgive me!…
Spider Minions:
Defend Madame Web… Defend Madame Web…
Dr. Simmons rips herself out of her restraints in a frantic panic, as matte black spiders seem to attack suddenly from everywhere, practically oozing out of the walls, allowing Dr. Simmons to escape past everyone as they were busy dealing with the spiders. Daisy suddenly emits a key frequency, and all of the matte black spiders shatter into inert pieces and fragments, like little broken glass sculptures of matte black spiders. Capt. Brian and Daisy run after Dr. Simmons, but lose any sight or sign of her as she seems to completely disappear. They come back without any thing to follow, just as Fitz comes to.
Fitz:
Jemma… Jemma!…
Fitz suddenly takes on a pulsating blue glow as he breaks out of his restraints and jumps off the bed.
Fitz:
Jemma!… Where’s Jemma?!?… Something happened with her!… Where did she go?!?…
Fitz starts to run up the stairs, but Dir. Mace stands in his way, prompting Fitz to swing at Dir. Mace. Fitz decks the director into the basement wall, bouncing him off of the black magic nanotech that Daisy used to save her building with, to the shock of Fitz most of all.
Fitz:
Woh!… What?… did I just do?… And how?… did I just do it?…
Fitz calms down and stops emitting a pulsating blue glow.
Fitz:
What’s happened to me?… Where’s Jemma?…
Gen. Talbot:
Cool your jets now soldier!… You have been dosed with an experimental version of Extremis of unknown nature… and who knows what else… by your own girlfriend… She just took off in frantic panic to who knows where… up to who knows what given that she’s a vampire now apparently… And given what she did to you… Beyond that… We would like to know ourselves just what the hell happened to make her go haywire!… And where the hell did those damn black spiders come in to the picture from?…
Fitz:
Damn black spiders?… What in bloody hell are you talking about?…
Daisy:
Her FSBs were all shaped… and moved… like little black spiders… When we came across you two… You were both covered in black spiders… You were unconscious in the tub… But she was standing up… wearing them… connected with them… using them… using them on you… A bunch of those things just attacked… So that Simmons could get away… She ran away screaming about you not never forgiving her… What the hell happened in there?… What do you remember?…
Fitz:
Wait!… Did I just kill Dir. Mace?…
Daisy:
No… He was already Extremis powered… He’ll be fine… Probably… Long story… What do you remember?…
Fitz:
Well… I remember us taking a bath together… after shaving off my excess scruff… Things naturally got intimate… Then at one point… she bit me!… It was kind of kinky for us but I figure if she was into it… But she started draining me seriously… She was like a forceful and ravenous beast… She was so strong… And she covered up my mouth while she drained me… I had no idea what was going on… Then I passed out… Woke up here… I never saw any black spiders… I only just saw my own girlfriend try to drain the bloody life out of me!…
Dr. Laufey:
She must have made the alterations that she made to you… in an effort to save your life after having nearly taken it when she lost control of herself… Past a certain point… it was probably that… or turning you into a vampire your self… Her experiment with Extremis on your behalf was a desperation move I suspect… Freshly made vampires often have such tragic difficulties… Although seldomly with such extreme results… The ones closest to them… are often their first victims… without even trying… without intention…
Fitz:
What… exactly… did she do to me?…
Dr. Laufey:
Well… The details will require time and a detailed examination… But she seems to have used each of your respective FSBs… to colonize and replace your entire skeletal structures… an irreversible integration… without most likely crippling surgery… or an equally extreme procedure that can never restore you to normal anyway… Additionally… She has given you some new custom form of Extremis… with completely unknown characteristics… I suspect that she used the Extremis to save your life… But she colonized your skeletal structure with FSBs… to stabilize and regulate the Extremis… If successful… she may have rendered you effectively immortal… Being a vampire now makes her effectively immortal already… With an FSB skeleton… she may be virtually indestructible as well… Who knows what else she may be capable of… She did leave here rather distraught…
Fitz:
We have to find her!… Now!…
Dir. Mace rises back up to his feet after his slugging.
Dir. Mace:
Yes we do Master Fitz… Yes we do… But right now… I think it would be best if we let her find her own way back to us… If I utilize Shield for this… there’s no hope for Dr. Simmons… I think we should give her time while we figure you out… Maybe we can use these FSBs to track her somehow… lets work the problem in front of us… Fitz… Besides getting your self checked out more comprehensively… You might want to take a look at the remnants of these black spiders… there all over the place in here… Daisy took a bunch of them out before… Let’s work the problem… Fitz… Me and Gen. Talbot both know a good deal about Extremis… from first hand intimate experience… No matter how well Dr. Simmons may have compensated for it… the last thing you want to do is fly off the handle and risk overheating… and blowing sky high… We have no way of knowing what your limit is… And I don’t recommend trying to find out… In fact being able to track FSB material… would probably help us find Coulson as well… He went missing while we were all dealing with you… I know your going through a lot right now… But we could all use a solve here… not just you and your girlfriend… That goes for you as well… Daisy… We’re going to have to be able to deal with Dr. Simmons without Shield… much as it pains me to say it right now… I can provide access to Shield resources… But friendly faces should bring her in… if possible… The queen may not be here… But if she were… she would probably be ordering you to work the problem… But probably not in those words…
Fitz:
You’re right… Spiders you say?… These are all fragments here?… and everywhere it seems…
Dir. Mace:
Yes… Daisy whammied them with something and they all shattered… There might still be a few that are more intact elsewhere… If they haven’t skittered off after their mistress… Madame Web!…
Fitz:
Madame Web?…
Dir. Mace:
That’s what her little nightmares called her when they attacked!… Sorry… But spiders creep me out… talking spiders even more so…
Daisy:
They were lying in wait for orders from their mistress… But they did her bidding without being commanded… Are they telepathic?…
Fitz:
The interface is… For the FSBs… That’s the control mechanism… using hybrid dark magic tech… that I made for her!… I’ve driven my own girlfriend mad!…
Dir. Mace:
Now take it easy Master Fitz… Presuming to speak on behalf of the queen… You’ve got a condition yourself… a condition that may provide clues to help your girlfriend… Need I say it again… Work the problem in front of you… I’ll try to keep Dr. Simmons off Shield official radar for now… But I can go ahead and have tech personal help gather up the creepy spider fragments for study… And to lend whatever lab support you may need or desire… from Shield in gratitude to the queen… and as an ally thereof…
Fitz:
I issued FSBs to my old Shield research and development team… I personally vetted them and handpicked everyone of them to begin with… Now they are burdened with a potentially madness inducing technology… They should be in the loop at least… given they got skin in the game now…
Dir. Mace:
You were doing your job… Master Fitz… And it still counts as a major success in my book… You couldn’t have known that your girlfriend was going to end up being a vampire… Who would have ever seen that one coming?… But she did something to you with it… And you have to get that sorted first… Daisy here has a knack for dealing with these damn spiders… Let us deal with Dr. Simmons… discretely… as a favor for the queen… I can totally sell that if it comes to it… Remember that I said so if anybody asks… Daisy… You should come with me to look for Dr. Simmons while we leave the rest here to help sort Master Fitz and help with his research… Gen. Talbot… You should stay here and help out with what you know about Extremis and with any clearances that may be necessary for that… Plus you can help Capt. Braddock here provide additional security… in case Dr. Simmons comes back of her own accord… Which I suspect may be a fairly good chance in her case… But I may have to sick the dogs on Coulson… He was literally possessed by an actual demon… And he has this FSB technology too… fused to him… There’s also a pretty good chance he shows back up here too… But there’s no telling who will be in control when he does…
Dr. Simmons:
Well… You don’t have to go looking for me at least… I surrender… And for what it’s worth to anyone who cares… I’m not sorry!… for anything… except biting Fitz in the first place… and turning May… I made her a vampire!… Mistress Lilith made me… And I had lost all self control… I almost did the same to you Fitz… And I’m sorry for that… But I’m not sorry for saving your life!… Although… in a panic… I may have overdid it a bit…
Fitz:
Overdid it a bit!… I could bloody explode!…
Dr. Simmons:
Oh there’s no chance of that silly… Quite the contrary… And I will never apologize for making someone functionally immortal… Except for May… I over compensated in a panic… And I launched a hypothetical solution that I was working up as a last resort… Black Box Extremis… was just in case anything happened to you… in case I happened to you… I gave myself part of that solution so that I could at least be a fellow guinea pig…
Dr. Simmons holds up her hand, and shows of her matte black fingernails that suddenly morph and sharpen into matte black talons.
Dr. Simmons:
Vampires cannot use Extremis to any extent… as it would burn them from the inside out… But with the Fitz Simmons Boxes… Extremis can make you immortal at least… even more so than a vampire… or even the Asgardians… But I recognize my crimes as such… And I am prepared to surrender myself unconditionally… to you as the director of Shield… Dir. Mace… After I’ve had a chance to examine Fitz comprehensively… To be sure that he’s okay… Then you can bury me in whatever hole you like… I deserve it well enough…
Daisy:
What do mean you turned May?… As in… turned into a vampire?… When did that happen?…
Dr. Simmons:
When we were abducted… Coulson was possessed by the demon Ogun… the ring leader of The Hand… Then Ogun handed me over to some vampire woman named Lilith… She turned me… And I had to feed to complete the process… when Ogun came again in Coulson’s body… bringing a tied up May along for similar treatment… and telling stupid jokes about it… Mistress Lilith made me turn her… Or die of starvation while I watch her kill May… May’s out there… still looking for Ogun I suspect… or worse… She hasn’t fed yet… She’s being stubborn… I can understand it… But I’m worried about what she might do when she ultimately gives in… Lilith gave me an assignment… She turned me to preform this service for her… And she made me turn May… So that she could assist me… Mistress Lilith… has commanded me… to cure vampirism…
Fitz:
To cure vampirism?… Is that even remotely possible?…
Dr. Simmons:
Most likely not… But it is the only other thing Mistress Lilith has really compelled me to do… So given the chance… I must continue… forever if need be… Even if not being compelled… By turning me… and then making me turn May… She gave me a motivation beyond compulsion… to get her way regardless… She doesn’t even need to compel me any further… She gave me irrevocable skin in the game… And held May’s skin as an irrevocable hostage to the same game… Solve her problem… or suffer from her problem for all eternity… Or until you end it yourself for good…
Dir. Mace:
We were saying… before you came back… that Shield was handling your case… with extreme discretion… as a favor to the queen of Nornheim… Whom I happen to know was very interested in offering you a position before… I’m not so sure about now… But we can ask her for ourselves when she returns… For the time being… Continue to cooperate with her representatives here… Namely Fitz and Daisy… and I will consider you properly held in their custody… and leave you to it for now… We can send people out for Coulson and May… For now your place is here with them… Consider that an order if need be… Because of his prior experience with Extremis… I’ll leave Gen. Talbot here to look after you as well… No more tricks!… No more damn spiders!… No more blood letting!… And no more unauthorized experiments!… Daisy… Capt. Braddock… I’ll need to draft you as help… To look for May and Coulson… Assuming we can trust your friend here under supervision…
Daisy:
I believe we can… But we’ll need Yo Yo and the others too… Let me call them… They’re out looking for my father… and The Hand… It’s still going to be like finding a needle in a haystack to find Coulson and May without full open Shield support…
Dr. Simmons:
I know exactly where they are… Or I will… if I’m allowed to make use of my spider minions that is… My creepy little FSBs… I didn’t leave before… I only hid from view… a deep stealth illusion… thanks to my little spider minions… They also allow me to network and hack into all sorts of things… like security camera feeds… May might be closing in on Coulson… Probably… to kill him… But who knows?… Maybe she just wants answers… But based on my experience… unless she’s fed and managed her hunger somehow… she’s bound to lose control as I did… I’ve managed to design a synthetic blood substitute that I can theoretically make with my spiders… But that is untested… And May knows nothing of any of this… She left to deal with the issue the only way she knows how…
Fitz:
In that case… we’re going too… You and me… I’m sick and tired of being examined… I’m needed to help them… And thanks to you… I can now run self diagnostics… We’re going after them… both of us… And that’s final… Consider this part of your community service under my supervision… We’ll take some Shield quinjets… But we’ll deal with this ourselves… And bring some of your spiders… If I’m right… we’ll need them to deal with a vampire May… or a demon possessed Coulson… And get them to work making as much of that synthetic blood solution as they can make…
Coulson:
Synthetic blood solution?… What did I miss already?… My head is a little more than just mixed up… And my body seems to have gone a bit crazy too… I don’t suppose… you know a good doctor…
Coulson stumbles down into the medlab, and passes out pulsating blue as he does, with even his prosthetic left hand also exhibiting signs of human flesh under the influence of Black Box Extremis.
Ogun:
I told you I would not be denied forever… But now… Even if I may be bound forever to this host… Now this host… is as immortal… as the immortal sorcerer Ogun…
Under supervision from Dr. Laufey and Fitz, with the help of Shield equipment, as well as medical and security personal, Dr. Simmons sets up a secure medical containment lab for Shield on the second floor, as Shield’s own floor, with Daisy helping out using her control over her building wide nanotech, to keep Coulson secure, but on the premises under proper supervision. Dr. Simmons is assigned to the downstairs basement med lab as her special cell, and personal lab, where she’s allowed to keep her pet spider minions while continuing to work under constant surveillance. Yo Yo, Mack, and Robbie return to be greeted and briefed by Daisy, as the Hell Charger and Yo Yo’s bike pull into floor level garage.
Yo Yo:
May is a vampire!?!… And Jemma!?!… And Coulson is possessed by a demon!?!…
Daisy:
And Jemma used her army of black magic Spider Minions… to turn Fitz into pint sized immortal super soldier… in part using these… Fitz Simmons Boxes… Some sort of alien Asgardian black magic nanotech… A quantum nanotech super computer Fitz Simmons dreamed up together at the academy… Simmons turned hers into an army of these creepy ass spiders… She put them in her bones!… Fitz’s too!… But if you know how to use them… there incredibly powerful… My mother made sure that I would know… Even before I had it… she was teaching how to use the weapon that I would eventually use to kill her some day… If we’re gonna manage to take her on… and get our kids back… we’re all gonna need this… or access to it… Robbie’s too complicated… because of his flaming skull condition… But I can do all that for him…
Robbie:
Thanks… I think…
Daisy:
Fitz says you need a background in magic… and or science… and or tech… And I’m assuming not being the host to a spirit of vengeance… It’s a security concern… nothing personal… But I can hook you up through the Hell Charger… Mack is actually a perfect candidate… Fitz has his hands full or he’d be giving you an FSB himself… It’s a crucial weapon for the war… as well as for dealing with my mother… But it responds extremely well… almost too well… And you are a berzerker now… Do you think you can handle it?… I really need you to be able to handle it…
Mack:
I can handle it… I’m not making it a part of my bones… But I can handle it…
Daisy:
Good… Change back to normal… And show me your shotgun ax…
Mack the executioner changes back into regular Mack, and his battle ax changes back into his shotgun ax, which he then presents with both arms and pride in front of him. Daisy puts one hand on the matte black tuning fork hanging from the matte black chain around her neck, and puts another hand on top of one Mack’s hands holding his shotgun ax. White sparkles begin to stream from her tuning fork, and converge upon the shotgun ax in Mack’s hands, colonizing it, and turning it into a matte black FSB shotgun ax for Mack.
Daisy:
There… Since the FSBs are hybrid magic tech anyway… they should work well with the berzerker curse that Dr. Laufey already put on this custom weapon of yours… Now infinitely more custom… potentially… Let me show you what it can do with Robbie’s Charger…
Robbie:
Now wait a second… What exactly are you planning on doing to the Charger?… I think I’d prefer it if you did something to me!…
Daisy:
Oh my dear Robbie… You are such a precious gear head… I was just planning on upgrading the sound system… With upgrade spelled with two D’s… for a double dose of Daisy… plus dark magic nanotech…
Daisy holds her tuning fork again and closes her eyes, as the white sparkles begin to stream from it again, and from the surrounding walls already colonized by her FSB earlier, streaming into the cheap cd player in the dash board, colonizing, changing, and upgrading it. The colonizing continues following the electrical lines through the Charger, taking over the speakers and replacing them with large solid matte black cubes, including a large cluster of such cubes in the trunk of the car, and a few more spread out along the undercarriage. Daisy snaps her fingers, and the Halestorm song Daughters of Darkness begins to play.
Halestorm:
Daughters of Darkness!… Sisters Insane!… A little evil goes a long long way!… We stand together!… No we’re not afraid!… We’ll live forever!… Daughters of Darkness!… Daughters of Darkness!… Daughters of Darkness!…
She snaps her fingers again after a few bars, and the music shuts off.
Robbie:
So you’ve got a remote now?… I was half expecting wings…
Daisy:
Maybe later… But it’s also got GPS… and satellite internet and FTL communications… that might even work on other planets!… Depending on the ultimate range of these FSBs… and the limits of universal quantum entanglement… whatever that is… Plus state of the art sensors… thanks to Fitz… And I get a remote… Not you… But you can use the rest… Essentially I made your sound system into a node of my own private FSB server network… To which I have given you high level access… So it will obey your commands… like the force… But it’s my force… The building too for that matter… which includes the garage… Now you… Yo Yo… You are a trickier matter… I could do the same to your arms Yo Yo… But if that’s going to be done at all… It should be done with your own FSBs… But I need to know that you can control it… But as far as I know… you don’t have any technical background at all… You were an art history post grad… working as a museum curator back in Columbia… Did my mother teach you any magic?… anything like that at all?… while we were under her control?…
Yo Yo:
Yeah… The same way she did for you… transferring memories from that Electra puta… I’m ready for whatever brings down that evil bitch of a mother of yours!… I can handle it!… No matter what!… And I can’t stand having these these things attached to me!… Anything is better than this!… I’m all in for this war!… No matter what!… Lets do this!…
Daisy takes her matte black tuning fork necklace off of her own neck, and puts it around Yo Yo’s neck, to Yo Yo’s giggles, while Daisy holds on to it in her hand.
Yo Yo:
What is this?… A sorority initiation?…
Daisy:
Hah… Hah… Don’t make me whip out my talking stick… and beat you with it…
White sparkles begin to stream from Daisy’s necklace, and converge upon Yo Yo’s artificial porcelain resembling white arms, colonizing them and turning them matte black after the white sparkles die down.
Yo Yo:
Gracias!… Dios madre!… That is so much better… I’ve been having nightmares about those arms strangling me in my sleep!… ever since I first got them… back in Nova Roma…
A number of skittering matte black spiders, with glowing red compound eyes, creep up behind the group, followed by Dr. Simmons and Fitz.
Dr. Simmons:
Coulson is awake… And seems to be Coulson… But that could be a deception by Ogun… It appears that Ogun has copied my handiwork… and given Coulson the Black Box Extremis treatment… FSB bones… Extremis regenerated hand… Just like Fitz… Coulson seems to be in charge… But the FSB that formerly contained the demon Ogun… has now colonized Coulson’s entire skeletal structure… Ogun is physically irremovable now… from a functionally immortal host…
Robbie:
What’s up with the spiders?… Why spiders?…
Dr. Simmons:
Why not spiders?… They are extremely agile creatures… Natures prototypes for future robotic probes for outer space exploration… Plus I must admit to having a greater affinity for them since we started having more in common… You know… Sucking blood and all… I have some of my spider minions observing Coulson right now!… Right?… Spider Minions?…
Spider Minions:
Yes… Madame Web…
Dr. Simmons:
We should go talk to him… Don’t worry about my spider minions… They only bite if I command them to… And I’m trying to be on my best behavior right now… Shall we go?…
Daisy:
Sure thing… Jemma… If you are still Jemma… Madame Web…
Dr. Simmons:
You’re one to talk… Quake… It’s just my online handle for my research into a cure for vampirism… But now I’m thinking it may be useful for other purposes… Don’t you think so?… Quake?…
Daisy:
Okay… Okay… Whatever you say… Madame Web…
Spider Minions:
Madame Web… A spacecraft approaches the roof… The queen’s shuttle has returned…
HAL 9000:
Automatic docking of the rooftop nanotech has been enabled… Mistress Daisy…
Fitz:
Was that HAL?… The HAL 9000?… from a Space Odyssey?… Why not the Terminator?… I’ll be back… in sequels… and music videos… and Daisy’s building…
Daisy:
I can’t help it… The default black cubes remind me of the black monolith from that movie… Maybe this is how it really starts… And we’re the silly monkeys… Playing with fire… without the fire… Just white sparkles…
Dr. Simmons:
Or red sparkles!… And occasionally blue!… It’s quite patriotic actually…
Daisy:
Star spangled black magic?…
Dr. Simmons:
For queen and country!…
Yo Yo:
I’ll need some yellow for that… But it probably does that too from the sound of it…
Robbie:
I prefer silver and black…
Politics Are Poison!
Poison That Never Ends!
Battles Of Shadows And Mist!
That Forever Never End!
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