CHAPTER 5

    "You always have something to say against Fury, don't you?" James asked as we made our way to the vault of weapons. Apparently, under normal circumstances I was supposed to get all this approved material and the such but Fury had bypassed all of that because of the apparent 'tight' circumstances.

    "Well I wouldn't have to if Fury didn't make it that I had to say something against him,"

    "That is extremely confusing," James muttered to himself. We entered the vault after a few scans and a flash of Fury's signature. The weapons vault was a large room filled to the brim with weapons of every shape and size. The agent on duty gave us a set of keys to let us roam. James made a gesture to lead the way so I did.

    "This is extremely dangerous," I said to James, spinning the keys on my finger, "Its two thousand and twenty-three and we're giving out keys to the weapons vault, like, seriously,"

    James pointed up and I followed his gaze to where a long set of cameras were, watching our every move.

    "Still..." I trailed off.

    "C'mon," James said, "you've got to leave in like ten minutes, pick a weapon."

    I tried a few; guns and swords appearing most commonly in my hands. Guns felt too alien and flashy in my hands and swords were too heavily, feeling laggy.

    I was about to protest to James that it was useless until the glint of a blade caught my eye; a long, curved blade like a crescent moon at the end of a long pole for extra reach; an extended scythe.

    "That one," I said suddenly, "it's the one, as cliché as it sounds,"

    James unlocked the cabinet and my fingers gently traced the design of the handle before seizing it off it's stand. I tested the weight in my hands and took a few swings. "Its perfect,"

    James nodded his approval and I laughed, "What?" He asked curiously.

    "My mum uses the same thing," I dropped the scythe, only hanging on my the strap.

    James must've caught my thoughtful looked because he asked very gently. "Lana?... Did you meet, your mother in the afterlife?" I blinked, then shook my head as if I was shaking off bad memories.

    "I don't think I'm ready to talk about that right now," My tone ended the conversation and James nodded, leading me out of the vault. We checked it with the agent and then made out way to the loading dock. James passed me my bracers and protective armour that said would help me. We made it onto the deck, the wind whipping around us.

    "This is where I stay," James said, taking a step back. I opened my mouth in protest, but James shook his head, "my Hulk shouldn't go anywhere near situations that could end up in... disaster."

    "Right," I said sadly. "But know that I really want to punch you right now," I gave him a smile than ran onto the open ramp, ignoring the looks of Gale and Cleo, striding into the cockpit. Blonde hair revealed Angel.

    "Imma sit with you," I whispered, "shouldn't you be on mission?"

    "Gimme a sec to explain," She whispered back. "Everyone better be sitting down right now cause I've had the seatbelt sign on for like ten minutes and we are finally about to take off so get your armoured arse in that chair." Angel flicked a few switches and then pushed the joystick forwards onto the runway. I searched the inside of the cockpit for a name and found it.

    "E.X.T to base, I repeat, E.X.T to base, requesting permission for takeoff?" I said into the radio.

    "Permission granted." Came the garbled response.

    "So you know how to radio at least," Angel said, her voice holding a completely conversational tone.

    "Yeah, I did some when I got bored back in the day, hopefully not too much has changed,"

    "Not really," Angel frowned as the jet began to speed to the end of the runway. I supressed a groan as we lifted from the helicarrier. "This flight will be twenty minutes so I suggest suiting up soon,"

    "But we legitimately, just lifted off?"

    "The wonders of science and physics, my friend, now go get changed," I unbuckled myself and slid out of the cockpit and into the toilet with my gear. It took a few moments because the fabric was tighter than I hoped for. Yet, James had said that I was supposed to be like that because the impact of a bullet would be stopped by the protective layer. It appeared as a lean, shimmering black catsuit but the slim padding was carbon-threaded enforced, making it almost as strong as diamond. I pulled my hair out and tugged a few knots, refusing to make eye contact with myself in the mirror.

    "Hurry up!" Cleo rapped on the door, breaking my thoughtful silence, "we're almost there,"

    I shoved my clothes into my bag, and exited the bathroom, holding a glare at Cleo. She moved away from the bathroom door, her clothing a perfect blend of Asgardian and modern.

    "We're approaching the dropoff." Angel called from the cockpit and we walked to the ramp. I felt the plane lower and hit the ground. I unclipped my scythe from my side, holding it firmly in my hand. My Assassin's Creed bracers were strapped around my arm but not out.

    The ramp door opened and Cleo, Gale and I ran down onto the gravel roof, our feet slapping on the pavement. The building was closed off by SHIELD to ensure that no one got out. But us three had to rescue the hostages ourselves. The plane lifted off, it would circle around until we signalled for it to come back.

    "We need to go in together," Cleo shouted, "Gale and I will go in first and Lana will follow in from behind."

    "We need to clear out the building first," Gale argued, "the hostages can wait."

    "That's not the purpose of hostages," Cleo snapped back, "hostages will be killed in the time that it takes for us to clear out the building."

    "Well-"

    "Stop!" I shouted, "let me do this. It's a test for me, right? I can do it, you guys just be the backup."

    "Lana-." Cleo began in her disapproving tone.

    "No." I interrupted, "I've got this,"

    I ran to the entrance which was a hatch, it squealed as I lifted it open. I looked to Cleo and Gale.

    "And its Alana to you," I shouted before jumping inside.

    Unfortunately, a gun would've been better that a scythe in a close-contact place like this where it was hard to spin and slice as I pleased. But I did what I could, knocking the guards out where necessary or using the Dark Mist to pull their souls from their bodies. I have to admit, using the Mist felt better, I felt no remorse about using its deadly abilities on dangerous soldiers. It made walking into the trap almost too easy.

    I turned a corner sharply to face an agent, he raised his gun at me and fired, I stumbled back around the corner but not before he grazed me with a bullet. I took a deep breath and looked at the wound, it wasn't deep but it had hit a lot of flesh, blood began to trickle down my arm. Surprisingly, there was no pain and I peeked my head around the corner, flinging the mist his way. After I heard his final screams and a silence thump I made my way to the door which should have the hostages in.

    I heard the clichéd muffled screams of hostages a while away but still slid inside the door after the guards were taken care of. I searched the room for any obvious trap, seeing none, I made my way to the ten or so hostages, releasing them and giving them instructions to the nearest exit. They ran there in a blind panic, some not even pausing to listen to my instructions. I rolled my eyes. Whatever.

    I ran back into the hallway, almost running into a guard with his weapon raised, before I could react, the tip of a spear erupted from his chest, blood gurgled in his mouth and he fell to the ground. Cleo stood behind him. "See? You can't do this by yourself."

    A light came from the guard, accompanied by the sound of crackling like pinecones in a fire. I looked down to see Gale's face, an illusion burning away.

    "Frick!" I cried at Cleo, seeing the increasing glow of the death around him. "He's dying! Quick," Cleo pulled his limp body into her arms, running behind me. Tears streaked down her face and she looked from me to him and followed.

    "What did I say?!" I snarled, cutting down a soldier. "You, stay, here. Not follow me like freaking lost puppies!"

    "He just ran in!" Cleo cried, "I tried to stop him but he wouldn't listen."

    "Well you did a bloody bad job of it, dammit Cleo!" I snapped, we reached the ladder to go onto the roof, "Angel, bring down the quinjet, we need a quick evac,"

    "Lana, this better not be really bad cause I'm going to be a good six minutes,"

    "We have a dying Lokison on our hands!" I cried into the coms, looking furiously back at Cleo who'd managed to get an unresponsive Gale onto the rooftop. His eyes were closed shut and the glow was a couple of inches thicker.

    "You have to help him!" Cleo cried.

    "This is your fault Cleo!" I snapped, "if you'd just done what I'd said for you to do then he wouldn't have died."

    "I'm sorry okay? But just help him!"

    "I can't do anything! Don't you understand?"

    "You're the daughter of Death." Cleo cried, "you love him, why can't you do anything?"

    I searched the skyline for the quinjet, the clouds were heavy and I couldn't see it. I groaned and looked at my hands. Do I love Gale? The Dark Mist began to form in the palm of my hands. The hundreds of black specks, I saw the occasional golden or milky white one. I let one of the golden ones rest in my palm.

    There's no time like the present to test out your upgrades. I thought to myself, cradling the one golden speck carefully. I walked over to Gale and dropped the granule onto his chest where the wound was most. Cleo pulled his shaggy hair back from his face while her tears dripped onto his cheek and down his pale face like Gale himself was crying.

    I remained impassive as I watched Gale's face double. Not Gale. I fell to his side, grasping his now ghostly, non-physical hand. His spirit hadn't left completely yet. I screeched aloud as I slammed it back into his body.

    "Not today." I cried, tears streaking down my face, and my eyes fluttering shut with exhaustion. "Not today," I murmured, falling backwards. "Not today."