synopsis ; yoongi hasn't seen you in months. not since he forced you to flee from the city to keep you safe. when you come back with a thirst for his most dangerous secret, yoongi can't help but surrender to your illusions.
themes ; action, suggestive, drama, e2l? e2e? just know that they're enemies <3, villain au, vigilante au
words ; 1.9k
warnings / includes ; allusions to sex, mild cursing, descriptions of violence and injuries, oc is really morally ambiguous whoops, oc also has the power to cast illusions !
a/n ; this is sorta a backstory to yoongi's character in galvano but can most definitely be read as a stand-alone !! i think i might expand on these two characters in the near future o.o
masterlist.
There was a queer stillness to the air that didn’t sit well with Yoongi. The city was never this quiet. The streets were void of the usual honking cars and drunk townsfolk stumbling back home with an arm slung over their equally hammered friends. Even the neon lights were warbling strangely, as if he was watching the town through warped glass.
With a snarl, Yoongi unsheathed his daggers in but a heartbeat, pivoting away from the edge of the building to send the blades arcing through the air. The illusion that was folded so cleanly over his eyes seemed to fracture into a million pieces until it gave way to the real world, revealing the city he knew like the back of his palm. Sound flooded back into his senses, the lights were no longer distorted, and he caught sight of the bustling cars and passerby once more. The unsettling weight that sat on his shoulders lifted ever so slightly.
You stood in front of him with a malicious grin playing at the edge of your lips, his daggers twirling between your fingers. The light of the moon bathed you in a pale glow, casting deathly shadows over your sinister features. Yoongi hadn’t forgotten just how beautiful you were—and how deceiving you could be.
“Took you a while to notice,” you whispered almost coyly. Yoongi’s nose twitched in annoyance. “You losing your touch, Suga?”
“Don’t call me that,” he snapped with bared teeth, stalking forward until he was just an arm’s length away from you. If he wanted to, he could grab you by the forearm, dangle you off the edge of the building—be rid of all his worries. If he wanted to, he could tug you closer, wipe that smile clean off your face.
It infuriated him to no end when you preened at his rough tonality, circling him like a wolf would its prey. “Why? I don’t seem to recall you minding that little nickname when you shoved me into your bedroom and—”
A noise of discontentment left his throat as he dove forward, fishing out a pair of throwing stars that were slotted against his leg. Much to his dismay, you were faster, casting an illusion over his eyes once again, completely disappearing from his sight. Dazed, he wildly glanced around until he spotted you on the other side of the building’s rooftop. You flashed him another dazzling beam, lifting a hand to mockingly salute him.
“You lied to me,” he spat, jaw clenched. He remembered the day he found out you were part of a villainous organization as if it were yesterday. That inky black stain of resentment marring his conscience was still fresh and tarnishing.
An off-hand hum rumbled from your chest. “I didn’t cast a single illusion that night, Yoongi. That was all real.”
A jolt of uncertainty spidered through his veins at your words. “So you’re really an elementary teacher?”
When you tossed your head back to laugh, Yoongi shouldn’t have felt his heart skip a beat, resting an unsettling uncomfort upon his ribcage. “Pfft, no, of course not. I said I didn’t use my powers that night, not that I was being truthful about everything I said.”
The vigilante felt his eye twitch in unrestrained frustration. “What are you doing here?”
There it was. That evil grin that painted your lips a dangerous shade of carmine. “Visiting my favorite wannabe hero, of course. I missed you. We had a fun tussle last time we saw each other, hm?”
When was that? The time you stabbed his thigh? The time you kissed him until he was gasping for breath, then proceeded to shove him onto a busy highway? The time he put a bullet in your shoulder? The time the both of you broke each other’s noses and he threw you an ice pack before dashing away? All his encounters with you were bleeding together, stitched into one large mass of constant hurt. Constant yearning.
Not a second had passed before you were suddenly a hair’s breadth away from him, your nose almost brushing against his. He glared into your molten irises, loathing the fact that you smelled of fresh mint, repulsed at himself for breathing you in.
“When?” Yoongi grumbled, pupils flickering down to your lips.
“When what?”
“When was the last time we saw each other?”
You pulled out his dagger to drag feather-light along his cheekbone, but Yoongi didn’t bother batting you away, transfixed by the way you puckered your mouth to the side in thought. “Must be half a year by now. I remember because you looked real pretty laying in blood and snow. Tell me you missed getting your ass kicked.”
“Can’t say I have,” he retorted, to which you rolled your eyes to the starless sky.
“Liar.” The dagger was flipped away, sheathed into your boot. He’d never admit it, but you were right. He missed you more than you could ever comprehend, often staying up until the dead of night wondering where you were, what you were up to. But he remained silent, only watching as you walked your fingers up his kevlar suit, repressing a shiver when your nails dragged up his pectorals. The atmosphere seemed to shift ever so slightly, and in a brusque fashion, a knife suddenly appeared in your hand, pressed against his throat. A pearl of blood welcomed the sharp blade, but you didn’t press any further. “You’re a filthy liar. You told the news that I knew where the superhuman serum was. I got kicked out because of you, you know. Highest ranked assassin there was, thrown to the alleys. Trust me, if I knew where the damn serum was, I wouldn’t be here now. You told them just to drive me out of the city! You only want that serum all to yourself—!”
Amidst your angry ramble, Yoongi caught you off guard by striking you once in the abdomen, kicking the knife away so that it clattered off the edge of the building. It was interesting to hear that you were no longer part of the villainous organization, but still consciously chose to commit heinous crimes.
You dodged his second hit, but left your flank exposed just enough so he could grab your waist, shoving you a bit too roughly onto the ground, pinning you down with both his knees caging your limbs.
A salacious leer appeared on your face at the compromising position he placed you in. “Gosh, at least buy me dinner first!”
“Enough,” Yoongi commanded with a tone of finality, leaning down close enough so that his dark tendrils brushed against your own forehead. He was tired of your teasing. “I told the news to drive you out of the city, yes. I did it to protect you.”
“You and your protecting,” you spat, wriggling in his hold, but not making any actual effort to free yourself. “I’m sick of it. Sick of you, sick of this fruitless hunt for something that may not even exist, sick of living a lie—!”
The way he relinquished his grasp on you didn’t go unnoticed. You shoved at his form so that he landed on his hindquarters, grumbling under his breath. “Stop. Just stop, will you? Don’t you understand that if the serum gets in the wrong hands, the world would be in shambles? I can’t let that happen.”
Yoongi knew he should’ve kept his mouth shut as soon as your muscles visibly stiffened. It was a small detail, minuscule in change, but he noticed it nonetheless. Jerkily, you pushed yourself onto your feet, glaring at him with an intensity that was both as cold as being submerged into a frozen lake, and as heated as a million suns.
“You know where the serum is.”
He shouldn’t have said anything. You were always too smart for your own good. Cold dread frosted over his spine.
When he opted for silence, a look of betrayal melded your features into pure, unadulterated fury.
Yoongi wanted you to scream, cry, throw something at him. Instead, you spread your arms out, and the familiar sensation of another illusion blanketing his eyes with darkness made him call out your name, but his voice only ricocheted back to himself. He misliked hearing his own desperation taint his words.
“I should kill you,” your voice echoed in his ears. He could hear you but he couldn’t see you. He couldn’t see anything. Heart thrumming wildly against his ribcage, Yoongi blindly grappled for his weapons that were usually hidden in his suit, but found the holsters to be completely empty.
“You wouldn’t,” he seethed into the bleak oblivion.
“Don’t put your money on that,” you murmured. An invisible force snaked around his neck, applying just enough pressure to have him struggling for a breath. “We would’ve been so great together, Yoongi. Everybody painted me into some sort of villain. It’s only expected of them—I hurt, I maim, I kill. Now, this probably makes you the most stupid human alive, but you saw past all that. Perhaps you saw a bit of yourself in me, hm? That same darkness within you. But you save whoever needs saving, and I exterminate whoever needs exterminating. That’s what sets us apart.
“That serum would’ve been mine to destroy, don’t you understand? It’s the whole reason every person I’ve cared for in the past is gone now. You really think that by keeping it a secret, people won’t eventually find and use it for their own benefit? I thought you were smarter than this.”
Yoongi hesitated for a moment before thrashing wildly against the force, heaving a dry breath when you finally relinquished your hold on him. “I can’t trust you. Not ever again.”
The illusion gradually faded away, and Yoongi found himself back in the city, on top of the rooftop, with your face just inches away from his. “You’re a farce, Yoongi,” you said, venomous. It was quite ironic coming from you, who had the literal ability to fabricate lies in physical form. For some reason unbeknownst to him, those words stung him more than the cut you left across his throat. “You say you protect, but there won’t be a city left to protect once that serum is found. No number of daggers will let you slice your way out of this one.”
Shameful turmoil flourished within his chest. What was he supposed to say to that?
“I’ll be back,” you growled, glancing down at a watch on your wrist when it beeped thrice. “ If you’re not going to tell me where it is, I’ll find it myself. And if I don’t… you’ll rue the day I stand over the ruins of your precious city. Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.”
“Wait—!” he called out, reaching forward to grapple at thin air, but you had already disappeared, blending yourself into the city’s nightlife. Where you were going, he wouldn’t ever know. Trying to keep up with you was like searching for a golden needle in a haystack. Virtually impossible.
In all his years of knowing the notorious villain, Yoongi had felt a great range of emotions for you. Anger, confusion, lust, amusement, frustration, on and on and on. But never was he afraid of you.
Yoongi was stricken upon realizing that, for the first time since he’s met you, he was utterly terrified.
Summary: An accompanying drabble to Exes and Supher-o’s. This drabble takes place before the events of Exes and Superher-o’s and follows Jungkook as he’s rescued by a superhero love interest.
A/N: The reader in this drabble is not the reader in Exes and Superher-o’s.
[ PART OF MY JUNGKOOK BIRTHDAY DRABBLE GAME ]
While standing in line at the check-out counter, Jungkook examined the oranges he’d picked out in his basket. Idly, he recalled Minutia saying the color orange came after the fruit, not before. She loved to spout factoids like that; Jungkook did a pretty good job of tuning her out, but her random facts always seemed to stick in his head.
Minutia was the superhero Jungkook was assigned to as handler. She was fairly loud, fairly opinionated and fairly dedicated to kicking people’s ass on the regular.
She’d mentioned the orange fact when ISA – International Superhero Agency – had recommended Minutia change her superhero suit color to orange. She’d felt very strongly about this and in the end, Minutia had won.
Usually, she did.
Realizing the line before him had moved, Jungkook took a step forward. No longer distracted by thoughts of the color orange, he took the opportunity to scan the grocery store around him.
It was a habit of his – an unfortunate side effect of both his job and the knowledge which came from it. After high school, Jungkook attended an elite military academy on the east coast, but it only took six months before ISA found him.
He’d been out for a morning run when two men in suits cornered him for what they called an opportunity. They’d explained about a different path than the military; an alternative from merely serving his country. Both agent and handlers at ISA held no national loyalty – they merely protected civilians from absolute evil.
Barely had the offer left their mouths before Jungkook accepted.
Of course, Jungkook learned soon after superhero handlers were little more than baby-sitters, but that was beside the point. He genuinely cared about Minutia and knew the work they did together was important – even if his position kind of sucked, since Jungkook was more than capable of defending himself.
Handlers were required to be proficient in various martial arts; they often trained the newbie superheroes who arrived at the Agency. Jungkook was a ninth-degree black belt in Taekwondo, a red belt in Jiu Jitsu and a tenth-degree black belt in Judo. He also had a blue belt in Krav Maga, but this had more to do with lack of time than capability. Jungkook could assemble and disassemble most weapons in the time it took most people to fire them, but all that meant nothing in the face of superpowers.
Minutia could simply freeze Jungkook and kill him if she wanted to; he’d never see it coming.
Not that Minutia would kill him, of course. Stifling the image, Jungkook moved up in line. His super was relentlessly moral, even if she had some rough edges and enjoyed pushing boundaries.
It was the rest who worried Jungkook, like the supervillains they fought. Aided by supernatural powers, supervillains were capable of great destruction. It was the main reason Jungkook stayed at his job – if anyone stood a chance against supervillains, it was superheroes.
“Bag?”
Surprised, Jungkook looked up. “Huh?”
“Bag,” the cashier girl repeated, rolling her eyes. “Do you want a bag?”
“Oh – no.” Jungkook shook his head. “I have my own. I –”
An explosion rocked the street outside, shattering the windows in a hailstorm of glass.
On instinct, Jungkook dove to protect the rude cashier with his body. There was bulletproof lining beneath his clothes, for which he was grateful. He’d just come from shooting practice at Headquarters and hadn’t had a chance to change out of his gear.
Glass harmlessly bounced off his torso, although a few shards sliced his face, leaving blood as he winced. Reaching up to grip counter, Jungkook surveyed the damage.
All the windows of the supermarket had been blown in. The blast seemed to have originated from the street – at least, Jungkook assumed this based on the direction of people running.
“Stay down!” he yelled, and launched himself over the counter.
People obeyed, crawling towards the store’s interior aisles. Jungkook hoped there was a door in the back, otherwise they’d trap themselves like fish in a barrel. He wasn’t surprised when people followed his command. People tended to respond positively to authority in times of chaos.
Yanking a Glock from his jacket, Jungkook dashed from the store. Cocking his head to one side, he surveyed the street for danger.
There – at the end of the block, he saw a cloud of dust settling.
Keeping his gun steady, Jungkook rushed towards the scene. Halfway there, he realized he’d left his groceries behind and nearly groaned. Oh, well, it couldn’t be helped. Such was the life of superheroes and handlers.
As though in response to his thought, someone emerged from the chaos.
Only one person; tall, with hulking muscles and what looked to be three arms. Nope, wait – that was machine gun. Fuck.
Jungkook lunged to the side as the man opened fire. Luckily, much of the street was deserted from the blast and few people were hurt. Propping himself up on one knee, Jungkook squinted from behind an overturned car and fired.
Five shots, each in quick succession aimed at the man’s torso. Three of them hit, sending the man to his knees, only for him to snarl, his gaze snapping upwards.
Jungkook watched in horror as the bullet wounds began to heal, pushing metal from flesh with alarming speed.
Of fucking course, he was a supervillain.
Flipping around, Jungkook pressed his back to the car and considered his options. He should call for Minutia, or another super – teeth gritted, Jungkook pushed this option aside. He could do this on his own; this was a fight he could win.
Winning against rejuvenation wasn’t unheard of for someone like him. It meant his opponent healed abnormally fast from their injuries, but they could be overwhelmed if Jungkook kept up momentum.
Before he could finish this thought, the car Jungkook sat against flipped overhead.
Eyes wide, Jungkook watched it crash and roll down the street. A small crowd darted away as they screamed and Jungkook stifled an eye roll. Civilians were so predictable. They never got out of the way like they should; instead, they pressed closer and tried to video it all on their cell phones.
Twisting around, Jungkook found the supervillain grinning at him while he flexed a muscle.
The machine gun lay discarded in a pile of rubble. Jungkook’s heart sank, since it meant the villain was out of ammo, which likely meant he’d been using it in other locations.
When the villain wrenched a storm grate from the ground, Jungkook came to his senses. Survival was priority number one. Fighting someone with only rejuvenation would’ve been hard enough; it would be near impossible to fight someone with rejuvenation and strength.
Rolling away, Jungkook managed to escape said trajectory of the grate.
Metal smashed into the space he’d just occupied, leaving a human-sized dent in the pavement. Flipping himself upwards, Jungkook shot as he moved. This was a move best left to the movies, unless you happened to be an obsessed-with-video-games-superhero-handler trained in four different kinds of martial arts.
Jungkook was just that.
“Catch me if you can!” he yelled, taking off down the street.
He zig-zagged as he moved, craning his neck to peer overhead. The new plan was: keep the villain’s attention on Jungkook until help arrived, which wouldn’t be long. Given the immediacy of the destruction, ISA would likely dispatch someone with the ability to fly.
All he had to do was stay alive until then. Smirking a little, Jungkook dug in his heel and spun around.
Luckily, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.
Pushing up the sleeve of his jacket, Jungkook waited until the villain was within fifteen feet, then pressed a button. 70 mA of electrical current shot out from his wrist, arcing with blue-white light to hit the villain in the chest. A product created by Namjoon, otherwise known as the superhero, Brainblast.
The volt was enough to stun or kill any other man, but the villain simply gasped and sunk to his knees.
He writhed for a moment, clawing at skin which simultaneously burned and healed. The distraction was all Jungkook needed to run, aiming his gun and – someone swooped down to blast the villain back with air.
A smirk on your face, you lowered both hands to your sides.
Jungkook skidded to a stop. Your superhero alias, Zephyr, was one of the most popular superheroes on the face of the planet. Intelligent, formidable, and rated a seven on the ISA power scale, despite only having one superpower: control over the air and winds.
You were also ridiculously hot; Jungkook had harbored a crush on you for years.
He still remembered the day you arrived at the Agency. Higher-ups said Zephyr (the Greek god of the west wind) was traditionally a male name and wouldn’t make sense to serve as your moniker. You’d said to fuck off and written it down anyways.
This memory made Jungkook smile, even as you sent another wave of wind down the street. Shaking his head, he pulled himself back to reality.
Hovering a few feet off the ground, wind whipped at your hair. You’d explained to him once you didn’t really fly – it was more the wind currents obeyed your commands and took you where you needed to go. Jungkook didn’t really get the difference, but he couldn’t deny you looked badass doing it.
While the villain struggled to stand, you glanced down at Jungkook.
“You alright?” you asked, concern evident in your voice.
Jungkook tried not to frown. “I’m fine,” he said, despite the disheveled state of his hair and clothes. “I had him, you know.”
“Right.” Your expression turned dubious. “It’s just that –”
You were cut off by said villain throwing a car at your head, which you managed to stop with a thrust of your hand. The winds obeyed your command, wrapping around the car to set off to one side.
Gaze narrowed, you rose even higher. “It’s not that you’re not capable!” You yelled to be heard over the wind. “But –”
A sewer grate flew through the air and, without turning, Jungkook shot it down from the sky. Pieces rained around them like confetti.
You stared at him, wide-eyed. “Right.” Sheepish, you smiled. “Just keep doing that. Distract him and I’ll try to knock him out. Keep him alive, though!”
Jungkook nodded, giving a grim smile before moving forward.
He broke into a run, alarmed by how fast the villain seemed to heal. Even if two supers had the same power, they tended to vary in intensity. This villain must be rated high even without his super strength.
The device on Jungkook’s arm wouldn’t recharge for another five minutes, so he relied on his gun to keep the villain occupied. A shot to the kneecap; another to his shoulder. Keeping your words in mind, Jungkook tried not to hit anything vital. Even rejuvenation might not be enough to heal the man if he shot him in the heart.
High above, you flew gracefully upwards. Jungkook nearly stopped to stare; you arced through the sky like a dancer, claiming the winds as though you owned them. Caressing the breeze with one hand, you turned around and – fuck.
Jungkook had let himself get distracted. Swearing aloud, he dove behind the nearest car and heard something shatter.
Rolling to the other side, he propped himself up on one knee and shot. The villain yelped, stumbling forward as the bullet hit his elbow.
This time, it took greater concentration for metal to be squeezed from his skin. The villain panted as he stood, clearly winded and Jungkook’s heart leapt, realizing they’d tired him out.
This turned out to be the opening you needed.
Swooping down, you reached out a hand, and – wind whipping about like a force field – slowly closed your palm.
The villain gasped, his eyes going wide as he clutched his throat.
Shakily, Jungkook pushed himself upwards to stand.
One of the most dangerous powers associated with air manipulation was creating a vacuum. You achieved this by removing the air entirely; a feat which required great skill and concentration.
It only took a few minutes for the man to be so deprived of oxygen, his eyes rolled backwards. His legs wavered a second, then he slumped to the ground.
“Saoirse!” you yelled, floating down. “Cuffs!”
A woman with red hair – your handler, Jungkook presumed – ran from the nearest subway station to quickly cuff the man’s hands behind his back. Jungkook could see the moment the villain’s power drained from his limbs.
Standing before them, you watched, although it seemed to pain you.
Picking his way through the wreckage, Jungkook came to a stop by your side. Glancing your way, he noticed the breeze continue to play with your hair, as though it couldn’t bear to be parted for long.
“Do you ever wonder what this does to us?”
Confused by your question, Jungkook blinked. “What do you mean?”
“This,” you said, waving a hand at the wreckage. In the distance, Jungkook could hear sirens screaming. “All the death, the destruction… even the people on the other side. Does it ever hurt you sometimes?”
Jungkook stared at you for a moment, unsure how to respond.
Truthfully, it did bother him when he saw himself in the villains they faced. Sometimes he was fighting genuine evil, but occasionally the villains had reasonable grievances – worse, sometimes they’d merely been raised to see the ISA as evil.
Jungkook couldn’t bring himself to hate those kinds of villains and yes, it did hurt when he took them out.
Sensing his hesitance, your shoulders slumped. Jungkook’s stomach twisted, wanting to fix whatever it was you were feeling. He hesitated, wanting to say you weren’t alone.
“Never mind,” you said, managing to smile. “Another bad guy defeated, right?”
“Right.” Jungkook’s gaze remained upon yours. “I guess.”
Before you could say anything more, Saoirse called your name.
“Guess I should go,” you said, rising into the air. When you glanced his way, Jungkook found himself wondering what you were thinking. “I… thanks for helping today, Jungkook.”
“Anytime.”
This time when he smiled at you, it was genuine.
You rose another few feet, then hesitated. “It’s been awhile since I came by the training arena, huh?”
Jungkook shrugged, as though he hadn’t noticed, but he had. Of course, he had.
“You’re still the one they’ve got training the new recruits?”
“Yep,”
“Hm.” A small smile crossed your lips. “Maybe I should stop by. Show the newbies how it’s done. We could work up a sweat.”
Jungkook’s heart nearly stopped when you dropped him a wink. Before he could speak, you rose further into the air.
“Bye, Jungkook!” you called, and zipped off down the street.
The sound of your voice faded into the sounds of the city and Jungkook stood there another moment before coming to his senses. His phone began to ring in his pocket.
Fumbling for the device, he sighed when he saw the name on the ID.
“Hello?” he said, lifting the phone to his ear.
“YOU’RE ALIVE.”
Wincing, he held the phone further away. “Minutia?”
“Who else would it be? Of course, it’s me, you idiot! I had just gotten my morning coffee and was passing that pizza place when I happen to catch a glimpse of the TV – and what do I see? You, fighting a fucking supervillain alone!”
“I wasn’t alone,” Jungkook shot back.
“Yeah, those cowering civilians looked real intimidating.”
“Zephyr showed up at the end, it was fine.”
“Oh,” she said, somewhat mollified. “Alright, then. She’s cool. But seriously, JK – be more careful, would you? I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Pulling his hand away, Jungkook squinted at the receiver. “Huh?” he said, returning the device to his ear.
“Yeah, who’d pick up my dry cleaning?”
“Bye,” Jungkook grunted, and hung up the phone.
Still, he smiled as he turned to walk down the street. People stared as he passed, pointing and whispering about the state of his clothes. Jungkook heard the word super being muttered, although he didn’t bother to correct them.
He was too busy turning your words over again in his mind. Does it ever hurt you sometimes?
The truth was it did. All the time.
He just didn’t know if there existed a better path than the one he was on.
A/n: Not requested but requests are open. THERE ARE NO JHOPE SPIDERMAN AUS WTF GUYS
Member: Jung Hoseok (J-Hope)
WARNINGS: Swearing, partial nudity
Summary: Growing up in the bustling city of New York, you aren’t usually used to knowing your neighbors. However, the boy in the apartment above you quickly became your best friend all the way up until your junior year of high school. After spending a summer away from the city, you come back to find your best friend, Hoseok, completely different. He became more muscular and started to become distant to you. You are trying to keep the friendship alive, but your feelings for him are getting in the way and he keeps avoiding you.
Genre: superhero!au, spiderman!au, fluff, comedy?, little bit of angst
My camera slung around my neck as I shouldered my backpack. The late summer breeze blew through my hair as I climbed out my window onto the fire escape. I climbed the stairs until I reached the floor above mine. Not surprising the window opened when I pulled and I climbed into the room.
“Hobi?” When we were little one of us would use the fire escape to see the other late at night after our parents had gone to bed. Now it was just habit to keep our windows unlocked. His room looked the same as before I left for the summer except for the fact that their was this weird metal briefcase lying on his unmade bed. His camera still sat on his desk next to his laptop. We joined the photography club together freshman year. Last year we both got offered internships at a small local newspaper but he turned it down saying he wanted to focus on the schools website. He was always better at the tech stuff than I was.
I smiled looking down at the camera, happy he at least was still doing photography. A lot had changed since I got back. Hoseok didn’t seem to ever have enough time for me anymore. But, that didn’t stop me from trying to keep our friendship alive. If I couldn’t work up the courage to tell him how I felt then I should at least work my ass off to keep our friendship.
“Y/n? What the hell! Give me some warning!” My head turned to see Hoseok walk in wearing only a towel around his waist. Laughing, I went to his dresser and chucked a pair of sweats at him. My eyes quickly allowed themselves to scan his body before I turned around. Apparently more than I thought had changed. I didn’t remember my best friend looking like that.
“Hey, I got a tip down from the paper. You know the guys that Spiderman busted doing that robbery a couple weeks ago? They had those freaky weapons. Well some anonymous guy called in a tip about a deal going down in Hunts Point.” The shuffling of fabric stopped and I turned around to face him. “Hunts Point? Wow, that means all that crap goes deeper than the cops let on.” He sat down on his bed and ran a hand through his still wet hair. I plopped down next to him and the scent of his shampoo immediately became present. The familiar and distinct smell of mint.
“You wanna go with me? I might catch Spiderman.” I wiggled my camera next to my face with a knowing smile. His face shifted. “Y/n, you can’t go to Hunts Point.” “Why not?” He stood up in front of me. “Because, you could get killed or.....you aren’t going, Y/n.” He started to raise his voice at me, something he never did before. “Well you made you King Shit of Fuck Mountain?” “What?”
“You heard me! Hoseok after ignoring me countless times these past few weeks, the least you could do is spend time with me even if it means getting killed in an alley somewhere! I left for the summer and when I came back I apparently lost the person I cared about most! I don’t want to lose you as my best friend too.”
Silence filled the room as he tried to understand what I just said. His phone started ringing from across the room. Crossing he looked at the screen and sighed running his fingers through his hair before looking at me. “It’s my internship....I have to pick up, Y/n.” Scoffing, I picked up my camera. “Forget it, Hobi.” My shoulder brushed his as I climbed back out his window. This time I descended down to the street and hailed a cab to Hunts Point.
It had been two hours and finally the tip came through. I had hid out on a rooftop of a convenience store waiting for something to show up. The three guys that had been smoking out front suddenly went into the alley to meet a blue van that had just pulled up. Quickly I crouched down and pulled out my camera. The deal was as the tipper said. I snapped shots as two other guys brought out a couple of weird looking weapons.
“I’m gonna need a demo if you askin me to pay that much, man.” The guy nodded and put on one of the gloves and pressed a button on the wrist. Pink electricity shot from his fingertips and grabbed onto a trash can near by and flung it into the wall hard enough the flatten it.
“Holy fuck balls.” I whispered. Regretting it, I clasped a hand over my mouth. I saw all five pairs of eyes look up to me. Suddenly, I was wrapped up in the electric tendrils and thrown onto the ground. “Bro you said this was a closed deal! We’re outta here!” The three men sprinted away from the alley but the other two just stared at me. I had slammed my head against the ground kind of hard and I felt something wet on my forehead.
“Well, well, well. Look at this little bird. Such a pretty thing spying on us.” He made a motion with his hand and the electricity shot out and grabbed me by the neck, bringing me in front of him by the van. My hands struggled against the coils of energy.
"What should we do with her, Jay?" The man behind him said. His finger came up to my cheek and I kicked and tried to scream. "Why don't we teach her a lesson?" Suddenly his head was thrown against the side of the vehicle and I was on the ground.
"Teach her a lesson? In what dancing?" I gasped for air and looked up to find a man, maybe boy, in a red and blue suit standing on top of the dumpster. "You sir, don't look like a dancer." He hopped off the trash bin with out a sound and landed gracefully.
"Spiderman?" I breathed out. His masked fork turned towards me on the ground. "Oh, hey Y/-----regular civilian." The masked hero scratched the back of his neck and from his voice it sounded like he was laughing. Suddenly a fist flew across his cheek, stunning him.
"Ow. Hey you know violence never solves anything!" He put his hands up like a surrender catching the guy off guard. "Then again it was my pre-K teacher who said that so screw her." His foot met the man's face so fast I almost didn't see it. Next his fingers went to his own wrist and a strong of web shot out and wrapped itself around the guy's chest. With a swift yank, he pulled the criminal straight into his fist, knocking him out.
"Rocky ain't got nothing on me bitch! Wanna go!" He started prancing around like the boxing figure from the film. "Watch out!" I managed to scream before a blast was fired at the Spiderman. He jumped out of the way as the electrical blast fired but his arm got grazed, breaking the fabric of the suit and burning his skin.
He fell to the ground clutching his arm. Seeing a chance I grabbed a pipe laying on the ground and wacked the guy in the face. It didn't do much as he didnt drop the weapon or crumple like they did in the movies.
"Have to say that wasn't my best idea." I said gulping as the man appeared to grow a few feet taller. At least to me in my cowering state of fear and embarrassment. He raised the weapon up to me about to fire when a web wrapped around it, pulling it into Spiderman's hands.
"Nice cap gun! Can I try?" He fired it at the mans stomach launching him into the brick wall behind me. "Can't get that at Party City." He said simply. Chucking the gun onto the street. He shot a large web against the guy keeping him trapped. He then lifted the other guy up and webbed him to the dumpster.
"Something's not right." He stood looking at the man. There was something about his voice that was just so familiar. And his attitude. It was on the tip of my tongue. "You got a pen, Princess?" Wait. No. I was just overthinking it.
I just had a fight with him. Of course he's still on my mind. I would connect the launching of Sputnik with him right now. "Uhhh yeah." I grabbed the sharpie from my pocket and he uncapped it walking over to the unconscious man. The hero who saved my life then proceeded to draw a dick on the man's forehead. "Much better!"
"What are you four?" He turned to look at me and I could tell he was smiling through the mask. "Where did you get that face? The ugly store?" He said in a whing voice, but a laugh came out at the end. It stopped when I raised my fist in warning. I grabbed hold of my camera which thankfully was still around my neck, and started taking pictures.
"What are you doing?" He said warily. "Proof. Say cheese." "I'm vegan." "Say tofu I don't give a shit." He held up a peace sign and you could see the two guys in the background of the picture. "Hey it's getting dark. This isn't a nice part of town. I'll take you home." A web sprouted from his wrist up to the roof and pulled down my bag. Holding out his hand to me he said, "117 ××××××××× St. Right?" Hesitantly, I took my bag.
"How did you know that?" He started to stutter and reached for the back of his neck again. "Uh- umm- I- I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. I see everything eventually." I nodded still not buying the excuse. "Come on." He held his covered hand out to me once more. This time I took it.
Before I knew it I was pulled very close to the strange person and swinging by web through the New York city skyline. However that wasn't what I noticed first. A familiar scent of mint was coming off the masked hero who held my waist tightly. Soon, he dropped me onto my fire escape.
"Come in for a sec. I want to give you something!" I said to him before climbing in my window. He cautiously followed and waited in my room while I grabbed a bandage and antiseptic spray from the bathroom. "Who's this?" He said pointing to my laptop screen. The background was a picture I had taken of Hoseok about a year ago. I would never tell him, but ever since I realized I loved him more as a person I craved to be with, I found myself taking pictures of him. That was my favorite. He was sitting on the fire escape and looking up at me with his bright smile. The one where his eyes looked like they were laughing. A smile I hadn’t really seen since I got back. The picture reminded me of the Hoseok I fell in love with.
“Oh. Umm...that’s just this boy I’ve had a crush on forever. It doesn’t matter though.” I said sighing and setting the bandages on the bed. “What?!” The masked hero turned to me. I couldn’t see his face, but his voiced was filled with shock. “Uh- I-I mean- Wait. Why doesn’t it matter? I’m sure he likes you back.” Spiderman messed with the frayed edges of my jean jacket resting on the chair. “No. He doesn’t besides he isn’t the boy I fell in love with anymore.” I sat on the bed staring at the superhero.
“You are in love with him?” For some reason his words came out breathy. I just assumed the action of kicking two guys’ asses was just now catching up to him. “Was.” I got up and moved in front of the man child hero. “Now sit. Let me take care of your arm!” He pushed me away gently. “Don’t worry about me, princess. It’ll be a scar by tonight. Perks of being superhuman.” That name. Was it?
“No more being heroic without me okay!” He called as he climbed out my window, swinging into the night. I heard a small crash and cars honking before I heard the voice of the Spiderman yelling, “SORRY!”
Did he really think I wouldn’t notice. He really wasn’t the boy I fell in love with. Pulling out my phone, I sent him a text.
Hobi, r u home? something cool happened!
No, sry princess im out getting groceries for Aunt May
its fine. ill tell u tmrw
I sighed, this confirming my theory. I threw my phone onto my bed and headed out onto the fire escape.
The window of Hoseok’s room slid open about three in the morning. The room was dark and I heard shuffling around in the space. “You grab milk when you were out?” I said from his desk chair. “HOLY FUCK DEMONS BEWARE!” I turned on the desk light to see Hoseok on top of his bed with his fists up. “Y/n? What the hell!” I looked to the red and blue fabric on his bedroom floor. He then realized he stood in only his underwear in front of me. Then he realized his suit lay obviously on the floor in plain sight for me to see.
“Okay, Y/n. It’s not what you think.” My arms crossed over my chest. “Let me get dressed and I’ll tell you all about it.” He started to move towards the closet but I moved my leg to block the closet. By the look on my face he knew not to piss me off right now. Even with him all bulked up he knew I could still kick his mother fucking ass.
“I was- uh-uhhh-It was Jungkook’s fault.” He said scratching the back of his neck. I raised my eyebrow at him and he sat down on the bed. “He wanted to go to this cosplay party- contest......whats it called?” “Convention?” “Yeah. And he wanted to be Iron Man and didn’t have a Spiderman, so I was like shit yeah I’ll go with you! I don’t have anything to do tonight. WAIT NO. That’s not what I meant. I mean I said that the other day. You know when he asked me to go to the event which was tonight.......”
I sat in silence just staring at my best friend expressionless. “I thought we were friends, Hobi.” He looked distressed. “Y/n we are. You mean the world to me, princess.” I shook my head and stood from the chair. “You would tell me the truth if I did.” I started to go out the window, but was pulled back into the room. Before I could turn and say something, his lips were pressed against mine. Hoseok’s hand gripped my wrist and the other went to my cheek.
My hand went to his cheek and the sound of the slap filled the room. He just looked down clearly ashamed. “If I didn’t know already, now I do. He was the only one I told.” With that I left the room and climbed back down to my apartment.
The next morning my phone had forty two messages from Hoseok and eighteen missed calls. I avoided Hobi for the rest of the week. I heard him leave the fire escape each night and saw him swing building to building. Part of me wanted to forgive him. I could see why he didn’t tell me. Every second that part of me wanted to run back up to his room and apologize and just let him hold me. Hoseok was always the emotional one when it came to the two of us. I hadn’t cried since I was six and my mom left, and it felt like Hobi cried every other day for a little puppy in the street or something.
I hadn’t slept for three days. Not for lack of trying. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I was proud of him. He was saving lives and didn’t even want anyone to know he did it. But, that was Hobi. “Fuck.” I felt a tear slip down my cheek. Wiping it away quickly I turned over and got up from my bed only to see a slim form climbing through my window. He was dressed in the suit, but the mask was in his hand. His dark hair was sweaty and framed his forehead.
“Oh shit. Y/n.” He instantly crossed to me, taking me into his arms. I didn’t fight it. I just let him hold onto me, hoping I wasn’t still crying. “I’m sorry I was an asshole.” He whispered. “Will you be more specific? You are an asshole most days of the week.”
“Wow! Exposed.” I turned to see THE Iron Man sitting on my fire escape. “Hoseok what the hell!?” The Tony Stark was sitting there watching me cry. “Sorry didn’t mean to interrupt. Actually yeah I did.” Hoseok kept his arms loosely around me. “Mr. Stark could you give us a sec?” He said it so casually as if this was a normal Tuesday. Stark sighed and then flew off.
“That was Tony Stark.” “Yeah.” “You know Tony Stark.” “Yeah.” “Jungkook is going to brutally murder you in your sleep if he ever finds out.” He nodded with a smile. I looked down not ready to handle the silence that followed. His covered hand brought my chin up to look at him. “A little spider told me that you were in love with me.”
“Really, you talk to spiders?” “Y/n I was trying to be cheeky like in the movies.” “You should stop that now.” “Okay.” I laughed and that feeling I got in my stomach when he smiled came back. “Do you love me?” He asked, his tone serious. “Hoseok. I have loved you before you were a super-spider. And I will love you long after everyone forgets why you are the most selfless and humble hero there is.” He smiled and I could see his eyes tear up. I wiped away the single one that fell.
“You can’t cry, okay? You have to go be SpiderBoy.” He laughed and his thumbs rubbed patterns on my waist. Slowly he leaned down and placed a kiss on my lips. It didn’t feel desperate like the one in his room. It was slow. Sweet. The kind where you forget that you even need air. The kind that made me want to never kiss another man the rest of my life. Happily I let him take the lead, involuntarily melting into his arms. My fingers tangled themselves in his dark locks.
He had a sharp intake of breath at this action and deepened the kiss, hands moving beneath the fabric of my shirt to feel the skin of my waist. I pulled away to look into his eyes. “I love you.” The biggest smile came onto my face. “You say more things like that I’ll have to keep you to myself all night.” “That I wouldn’t mind.”
“I would.” We both turned to find Tony back on the fire escape motioning for Hoseok to follow him. I pushed him towards the window and Mr. Stark left my sight. Hoseok turned to me as he stepped out on to railing.
The world needs superheroes, without them who would stop all the murders, rapists, thieves, alien invasions, crazy scientists? That’s where your group, Bangtan, comes into play.
BTS x Reader
Superhero AU
WARNINGS: Violence, blood, swearing, death.
Bangtan Sonyeondan. The world’s mightiest heroes. A group formed by the Korean government agency B.I.G.H.I.T, run by a man that goes by bang-PD. Each member has their abilities from natural-born powers, genes being modified, years of training, or just simply having millions of dollars.
Each superhero in the Bangtan goes by a code name to keep their identities a secret, from simple names to philosophical names with meaning behind them.
One example is the youngest member of Bangtan, Jeon Jungkook. Code-name: Spider-Man. After a bite from a radioactive spider, Jeon Jungkook gains abilities like no other. While living in the big city of Queens, New York, Jungkook uses his newfound powers to save the lives of many civilians. Super strength, Super healing, Super agility and speed, web-slinging, scaling walls, spidey-sense, and a sense of humor.
That’s not the only member, however. Let’s meet the rest, shall we?
Multi-billionaire, playboy, genius, what more can you say about a man that has almost everything and anything he could want…. Well he’s a bit of an asshole or also known as Mr. Min Yoongi. Code-name: Iron-Man. After being kidnapped and ending up with pieces of shrapnel near his heart, he built a device to not only keep the shrapnel away but also has enough energy to power a super-powered suit that he built himself. Super strength, the ability to fly, durability, and a number of weapons.
Anger, that’s one of the main things that come to mind when you think of a giant green monster with super strength who could destroy a car with just a flick of his finger. Jung Hoseok. Code-name: Hulk. After an explosion of a gamma bomb going off and getting a heavy amount of radiation, Jung Hoseok genes inadvertently inserted a series of “epigenetic switches” that turned certain genes on and off, turning him into the big green monster known as the Hulk. Superhuman strength, self-sustenance, prolonged longevity, superhuman speed, superhuman stamina, superhuman durability, and regenerative healing factor.
Frozen in ice for more than 50 years, after sacrificing himself for the sake of his country. Kim Namjoon. Code-name: Captain America. Getting a super-soldier formula and letting his body metabolize it, made him into an overpowered super soldier that allowed him to serve his country while they were at war with Germany in 1942, however, to save the country from a nuclear bomb. He sacrificed himself by flying into the arctic with the bomb. Ultimately getting frozen, only to wake up years later, enhanced agility, strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time superior to any Olympic athlete who ever competed.
Master in the covert arts of espionage, infiltration & subterfuge. Park Jimin. Code-name: Black widow. An orphan raised to be a seductive super spy and an expert martial artist. After teaming up with another orphan named Hawkeye, he became one of B.I.G.H.I.T.’s most deadly assassins and a member of the Avengers. Even without superpowers, he is able to keep up with the others. Expert martial artist, with exceptional agility, athletic ability, and advanced weaponry including custom stun batons and bracelets capable of stunning enemies with electrical discharges.
Earth’s Mightiest Marksman, a devil-may-care attitude and mastery over one of civilization’s oldest weapons as the Avengers’ ace archer. Kim Taehyung. Code-name: Hawkeye. Orphaned at an early age, Taehyung escaped and ran away to join the circus. The youth fell under the sway of villains unknowingly and was trained to be an expert with a bow and arrow. However, after finding out the truth and being beaten, he searched for a higher purpose.
Taehyung witnessed Iron Man in action and he decided he would join the side of justice. After joining forces with black widow, he became B.I.G.H.I.T. 's best marksman and at the very peak of human conditioning, an exceptional fencer, acrobat, and marksman.
The final member and most likely the most powerful of the group, born from gods with the ability to control thunder and wielding the mythical hammer, Mjolnir. Kim Seokjin. Code-name: Thor, son of Odin the Norse god of War and Death. Seokjin lived a lavish life in the palace of Asgard, until he was cast out to learn how to be worthy of wielding Mjolnir. After saving the lives of many, Seokjin regained his power and chose to live on earth. Only to be found by B.I.G.H.I.T. and recruited to be in Bangtan. Godlike strength, invulnerability, superhuman speed, superhuman stamina, superhuman senses, and regenerative healing factor.
All seven makeup Bangtan.
While still being new to work alongside each other and disagreeing (a lot). They were able to work together to stop an alien invasion from destroying New York and the world.
However, they were not prepared for what was to come.
——————————————-
Sounds of heavy breathing and hurried footsteps of a young man came clamping down the white pristine hall that was the base of operations for the agency of B.I.G.H.I.T.
“MR. BANG-PD! SIR!” The young man yelled running into the main room that held the avengers and the head of B.I.G.H.I.T. all looked up at the entrance where the young man came rushing into, without seeming to realize there was currently a meeting going on.
“Soobin! What is the meaning of this? Can’t you see there is a private matter going on?” The man seems to Bang-PD.
“I-I’m sorry sir! b-but this was an urgent matter that I was told to bring to your attention immediately.” The young gentleman stumbled out.
“Well, what was so important that it couldn’t wait?” The older man seemed to start losing his patience.
“We found her, sir.”
“Where?”
—————————————–
Life was good for you when you were young, loving parents, friends, and everything you could ask for….until you turned 18, that’s when everything went to shit.
You didn’t understand at the time what you were but you were a mutant with extraordinary power, but it came with a price. It started when you got into an argument with one of your friends over something trivial and all you can remember is the anger and overwhelming frustration you felt. The next thing you know your friend is up in the air, floating, gasping to breathe. Screaming out her name as though something would happen if you did. However, it didn’t, the next thing you know her neck twists at a terrifying angle, broken.
The first thing that came to mind was a rampant mutant killed her, looking around where the mutant was, you stopped, seeing everyone in the surrounding area staring at you in shock and fear, you felt terror at the pit of your stomach. You killed her, you ended her life.
You were the mutant.
You ran, running away from the shock, from the truth of what you did
What a horrible choice you made.
Running towards your home rushing inside and running past your parents up the stairs and in your bedroom, locking the door you paced the room, ignoring the shouts of your worried mother asking if you were okay. Grabbing your head in stress from what just happened, looking up into the mirror only to scream in shock. Your eyes, they weren’t their usual color. No, they were now pinkish-red. Shocked you didn’t hear the sound of your parents knocking on your door until you felt your father's hand touch your shoulder. How couldn't you realize how terrible of a decision you made to come home.
“Y/N are you alright?” your father asked, the sound of car tires screeching and yells coming from outside distracted your father. He walked towards the window and as the doorbell chimed downstairs, your father glanced out the glass, only to immediately back up and yell for your mother not to open the door, it was too late.
The men came barging in, your mother raced up the stairs only to get tackled in the corridor. Your father was blinded by rage rushed towards the men only to get forced onto the ground as well. Overwhelmed with shock, the men in armor grabbed a hold of you, the feeling of handcuffs being forced upon your hand. You looked up to see your father yelling and fighting for you to be let go, saying you haven’t done anything wrong, your mother cried as she watched. A man came from behind your father and took out a nightstick, you watched as the stick lit up with a blue pulse and lowered towards your father’s neck. Letting out a yelp of pain, he was forced back onto the ground, only for a second later to try and get back up. He was shocked again and again. Time seemed to slow down everything was overwhelming as you watched your mother crying in hysteria, father being shocked over and over. All from the death of your friend that you caused. That is when you felt it again something inside of you.
That anger, the frustration everything went black
Waking up disoriented and confused, you sat up only to look back down from the feeling of something rough pushing up against your skin, dirt and chunks of wood scattered around you. Glancing up and around, you stared in fright. Your house and many others were gone, only debris and smoke left in its wake. But that’s not what caused you to start trembling.
The skeletons
The remains of what seemed to be maybe 20 lay in the mess standing up you stumbled towards a pile that was scattered close to each other. Looking down you examined the corpses closely, you don’t know what you really expected to see but this sent a pit into your stomach. They're lying in the mass, two skeletons each with a wedding band, holding hands.
You killed your parents.
Killed them.
————————————————–
“Our main objective is to bring her to B.I.G.H.I.T. and interrogate her, take all necessary precautions to secure her with minimal damage to the surrounding area.”
“Namjoon-Hyung, We can’t just be like “Hey we are here to take you to a random place against your will, so come peacefully, okay?”
Namjoon looked at Jungkook and scowled “now is not the time to make jokes! We have a serious situation on our hands, and we don’t know how aggressive she is. She could easily take us all down if we don't take her seriously on the task on hand.” Standing off to the side in the aircraft stood the man with an annoyed look on his face, Min Yoongi. “Yoongi, calm down. We are concentrating, Jungkook now is not the time to crack fucking jokes.” Sitting in the passenger seat of the craft sat a man in Asgardian Steel, Kim Seokjin or otherwise known as Thor.
“Sorry Hyung, just trying to lighten the mood.” The young man in the Blue and red jumpsuit replied.
Turning on the autopilot and standing up to address the team, the war Veteran who was also the leader of the group, Kim Namjoon. “Taehyung, I want you to look out on top of the building on the corner of Jongno-gu. Jungkook, Jin, I want you two in the back alleys, if I’ve studied enough about her she will try and escape through them. Yoongi, you and I need to be on the streets. Hoseok and Jimin I need you both to stay here and be ready to jump in if things get out of control. Everyone understand?” All nodding in agreement the five of the seven moved toward the back of the ship as the door opened lowering closer towards the ground.
“Bangtan assemble.”
With those final words of encouragement, they jumped.
A/N: This is another part of my Superhero AU. (This post: BTS as superheroes ) This is basically just what you would be in that AU and why you know them, as a “good” version.
(gender!neutral)
RM aka Kim Namjoon
You’re a scientist as well
You worked for Namjoon when he was famous (before the accident)
You were only an assistant, still, you loved your job.
Even after the accident, you didn’t want to give up on Namjoon.
But he told you like everyone else to leave.
You’re not so easy to get rid of.
Which means you were still at his side.
Even when he was angry, would scream at you and hen he was depressed, you stayed, trying to cheer him up.
Which means you have seen him at his lowest points and even when he begs you to leave him to have a life of your own, you decline.
Maybe because of your crush on him. Who knows.
Even though you two are close, he couldn’t tell you about his power’s.
He thought you would see him as a monster. Or that you would be scared of him.
But you’re nosy so soon or later you’ll find out about BTS, his secret superhero group.
Maybe he is not the only one who gained power’s after his project went wrong...
Jin aka Kim Seokjin
You’re his stalker.
Oka let’s say your hi stan. Stalker sounds so dark and bad.
It’s just that he saved your life once, with his super strength. But he didn’t reveal his identity.
Since that day you wanted to figure out who he is.
Somehow you managed to find out that he is a policeman and works near your home.
Ofc he isn’t stupid and he noticed that someone is following him.
But he never thought it’s a harmless fan.
When he finally confronts you, you have to tell him that you know about his powers.
He is shocked at first.
But when you prove that you’re on his side and that you don’t want to reveal his secret to others, he finally starts trusting you.
You manage that by covering up for him in front of his boss because someone nearly found out of his superpowers.
Since that day you two often meet.
You annoy the hell out of him when he accidentally tells you that he started to work with other heroes because you want to meet them.
But he says NO.
He is just scared that he drags you to deep in the whole thing and that you’ll get hurt in the process.
Also, he doesn’t like how much you adore Suga, as a hero.
Maybe he is jealous, because of his teeny-tiny crush. Who knows.
Min Yoongi aka Suga
You two can’t bare each other.
Mainly because you both run companies that are on the top. He is just getting in your way and you in his.
While you took over the company from your family and managed to get to the top, he built his company from nothing.
You’re like 100% sure that he is one of the villains in the city.
At least he would have the technology for it.
It never crosses your mind that he also could be a hero, that’s until he saves you.
Your company get’s attacked and he is there, protecting you.
When the villains are a defeated he turns around facing you.
And he takes off his mask, enjoying your shocked face. Firstly because Min Yoongi is the famous Suga and he looks freaking hot.
He isn’t even scared that you will tell the world who he is, firstly because he would give zero fucks and because maybe the thing between you two is more like a love-hate relationship
No?
Okay, only hate...(LIES)
Whatever since that day you kinda owe him something, which means you aren’t that mean anymore.
Also, you’re often worried about him, but you would never admit that.
Maybe you have to take things into your own hands, to protect him or at least help him defeat the evil.
Jhope aka Jung Hoseok
You met Hobi at the dance academy and it didn’t take long until you two were best friends.
He is always taking you home when it’s getting late, because in a city with various villains, he is scared for your safety.
That’s also why he hasn’t told you about his powers yet, even though he is quite proud of them and hates lying to you.
Often you asked questions when you see that he got hurt again.
You are angry when he still dances, making his injuries even worse, than you have to treat them.
You just want to know how he get’s them, but he won't tell you.
You respect his privacy, but you’re also hurt. You always thought he wouldn’t have secrets because he trusts you.
But who are you to talk? You also never tell Hobi what you’re doing in the night and that you have powers yourself.
Still, you two manage, to keep your secret lives from each other.
because both of you are scared to put the other in danger.
We’re not going to discuss if it’ because of the feelings towards each other.
Becuase they are also a secret.
If you two would just realize...
ChimChim aka Jimin
You have lived in a bad neighbourhood all your life and also in school, you have witnessed and been a victim of bullying.
When you’re still a teenager you decide to run away, because you don’t want to be weak anymore.
You join the League of Assasin, training to be able to protect yourself.
You’re really hardworking and soon you’re the best of the new recruits.
That’s until Park Jimin arrives. A weird boy around your age with a weird tattoo on his hand. And you're sure he has a lot of secrets.
With his innocent look, people easily underestimate him and he is one of the best fighters.
Even though you compete in fighting, you two become good friends.
When he decides to leave, to go back to Soul, you come with him.
The problem is just that leaving the League isn’t that easy. You can’t just come and go as you like. But you are able to make a compromise with the leader.
Back in Seoul, you’re maybe finally able to help fight against the villains in the city.
But like Jimin you also have a lot of secrets.
V aka Kim Taehyung
You work at the same coffee shop as Tae.
But he probably doesn’t even know your name.
You two have never spoken, but he barely speaks with anyone. He only talks as much as needed for his job.
When he his shift is over he is really fast to leave.
Still, you have a massive crush on him. You like how mysterious he is.
But you don’t get your hopes up because he is mostly ignoring you.
The first time he talks to you, you’re really shocked, because, besides the fact that Kim Taehyung speaks to you, he also knows your name (Maybe bc of the name tag)
He asks you if it would be possible for you to watch his dog, for the weekend.
At first, you're shocked that he trusts you enough with his dog, but then you get a grip on yourself and accept.
When he brings his dog over you invite him in, which leads to him seeing your big V poster. embarrassing
V had been your favourite superhero and role model since he appeared.
If you only know...
Kookie aka Jeon Jungkook
You meet Jungkook the first time in college.
He has the same course as you.
Maybe he wouldn’t have caught your attention, but besides being late all the time he also slept the whole time.
At first, you were confused why he even took the course if he only sleeps, but then you got angry. His little snores were annoying, and somehow you always ended up beside him.
Probably because you always sat in the first row and no other wanted those seats.
But somehow you also pitied him.
Like many, he probably had to work late. (Actually, he had a superhero life at night...)
When the exams were coming up you decided to copy your notes and give them to him. He had been asleep the whole semester so he hadn’t taken notes.
Jungkook was surprised but accepted.
So you two became friends.
Unlike most f the other’s Jungkook revealed his superhero identity to you really quick, even before he joined BTS.
You’re his best friend so he trusts you with everything.
aight so it’s another BTS au mostly because I like thinking up au’s with these 7 nerds, and I’ll still be writing the pjo one too, I'm just starting this new one as well. It’s gonna be a superhero/mutant au kinda thing, and Im gonna post the prologue next, and I'm almost finished with the character profiles so those will be posted in the next day or two. Also, this fix will be more gritty, as in there’ll be fight scenes, possible mention of injuries, and slightly darker themes (nothing extremely horrible, but think Max Ride when they talk about being tested on in a lab kind of thing), as well as some profanity, so I’ll put warnings at the beginning of every chapter, but there ya go.
pairing ; winter soldier!taehyung x hero!avenger!reader (gender-neutral)
chapter summary ; waking up after seventy years of being frozen in ice proved to be every bit as awful as it sounded. you lost everything you once knew, thrown headfirst into a storm of villanous gods, aliens, and a shitload of trama.
warnings / includes ; war/violence/death, heavy angst, cursing, loki is a little shit, everyone is kinda an asshole in this chapter yikes, i’m sorry taehyung isn’t even in this part dies, bts cameos :D, jungkook is just tired and constantly concerned for you :(
a/n ; this chapter follows the movie the avengers! upcoming chapters will follow the general mcu timeline !!
series masterlist. series playlist. bucky barnes version.
Punching had never felt so good before. You jabbed at the sandbag in front of you with quick succession, raw pent-up tension poured into each hit, strike, and kick. All the stress you’ve felt from the past week melted out of you as you pummeled the poor red sack, muted grunts of exertion falling out of your lungs.
Jungkook had come to join you some minutes ago, doing just the same as you were. A thin grey t-shirt that clung to his chest and dark pants were all that he wore, along with a grim expression melded over his strained features.
You understood, almost completely sure you mirrored that same look. After all, the past seventy years haven’t been kind to either of you.
How did you survive the ice that long without aging? Jungkook, you understood wholly. He had that super serum swimming around his blood… but what kept you alive?
It took you several sleepless nights, but you came to the conclusion that it was that energy source that had fallen into the ocean just before you and Jungkook landed in the ice. You weren’t quite solid in the logistics, but somehow, its incomparable energy was enough to keep you frozen in time, alive where life shouldn’t dwell.
A tremble meandered up your spine, and you paused your hits, leaning against the punching bag with labored breath. Jungkook kept going, bandaged knuckles thudding dully onto the leather bag.
“Jungkook,” you whispered.
He kept going.
Chewing on the bottom of your lip, you repeated yourself, louder this time, “Jungkook.”
He didn’t stop. You watched with a slight frown as your friend punched one last time, sending the bag flying off of its hook, sailing across the room as sand fell from split seams. Only then did he stop, turning to you with freckles of sweat glistening on his forehead.
“What?”
Gone was the sweet Jungkook you once knew from the forties. This Jungkook was angry, confused, mourning. You stepped forward hesitantly, unwrapping the gauze around your fingers to hand to him.
“Your bandaging is too thin. Don’t want you hurting yourself,” you said quietly as you took his hand, re-wrapping his knuckles.
There was little Jungkook had to say to that, so he remained mute while you fussed. It unnerved you; silence with Jungkook always meant something was wrong.
These past few days, all you’ve known was silence.
Once you were done, Jungkook gazed into your eyes for a millisecond longer, noting the glassy sheen of anguish behind those irises of yours. Then, he turned to pick up another sandbag as if it were weightless and hooked it back up.
The last person you expected to show up was Min Yoongi.
“Trouble sleeping?” he surmised to the both of you, striding into the training room with his hands clasped behind his back. Black was his color, you thought absent-mindedly, observing the monotone attire consisting of an inky jacket, ebony trousers, and, of course, the infamous eye patch.
Jungkook paused before he could take a jab at the new bag. “I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I’ve had my fill.”
“Then you should be out celebrating! Seeing the world.”
You snorted at that. “When we went under, the world was at war. We wake up, they tell us we won. But I have yet to know what we lost.”
Yoongi narrowed his one good eye at you. “We’ve made some mistakes along the way. Some… very recently.”
This seemed to pique Jungkook’s interest. “You here with a mission, sir? Trying to get me out in the world again?” The last question was said with an undertone of bitterness, subtle, yet you still picked up on it.
“Trying to save it,” admitted Yoongi. A manila folder was in his grasp, extended towards the two of you. Gingerly, you took the file from him and flicked open to look upon its contents.
On the cover, in bold capital letters, read TESSERACT. You blinked upon seeing the picture attached; the blue cube that Hydra used to build weapons. The energy source that you presumed kept you alive in the ice. You could feel the flowering of a headache blossom at the base of your skull.
“Hydra’s secret weapon,” Jungkook mumbled, peering over your shoulder.
Director Min dipped his head in recognition. “Kim Namjoon fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you.” At the painfully familiar name, you could feel yourself tensing all over again. “He thought just the same as we did. The Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. And that’s something the world sorely needs.”
A sick feeling twisted at your stomach. The last time a man got his hands on power that strong, a war ensued. History had a tendency to repeat itself. You pieced two and two together and asked in a bleak tone, “Who took it from you?”
“He’s called Loki. He’s… not from around here.”
Both you and Jungkook glanced at each other in mild concern.
“There’s a lot to bring you guys up to speed on if you’re in. The world has gotten even stranger than you know.”
An almost-laugh fell past Jungkook. “At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me.”
“Ten bucks says you’re wrong,” said Yoongi with a derisive snort. “There’s a debriefing packet we left at your apartment. Anything you can tell us about the Tesseract we ought to know now?” The question was directed to you, well aware that you had studied the source with Namjoon all those years ago.
Nose twitching, you leveled Director Min with a dismal gaze.
“Should’ve left it in the ocean.”
You harbored a deep dislike for planes. It was quite a glaringly obvious reason why, but it seemed you really had no other choice. You forced yourself to swallow the bile in your throat and got comfortable (or, as comfortable as you really could) beside Jungkook.
A SHIELD agent you knew to be Phil Coulson (he was there when you woke up from your coma), hovered over the two of you like a mother bird would her sickly children.
“Anything I can get you? We have drinks somewhere in here… you want a Sprite or something?”
The both of you blinked at him in confusion. What in the world was a Sprite?
He winced at your befuddled expressions, but digressed. “Let me know if you guys need anything else. We’ll be here for another hour or so.”
Tentative, you raised your hand awkwardly, clearing your throat. You vaguely motioned to the briefing file you read over several times before getting on the plane. “So this Dr. Jung Hoseok was trying to replicate the serum they used on Jungkook? The amount of Gamma radiation he was exposed to should’ve killed him. But instead, he… turns into a monster when he gets angry?”
Phil seemed to consider your question, lifting his hand to do a wishy-washy motion. “It’s a bit more nuanced than that, but that’s about it, yeah.”
The uncomfortable feeling at the pit of your stomach increased ten-fold.
“Anybody else try to replicate the serum?” questioned Jungkook.
“A lot of people were,” Coulson admitted. “You were the world’s first superhero. Jung thought Gamma radiation would be the key to unlocking Erskine’s original formula.”
Glimpses of your past flashed behind your eyelids as you slowly slid them shut. You pictured the lab where they turned Jungkook into a superhuman… where Erskine was shot just moments after.
“When he’s not that thing, though, the guy’s like a Stephen Hawking.”
Great. Another reference you couldn’t understand.
“Er, he’s like a really smart guy.”
Jungkook bobbed his head in understanding. “I know my fair share of smart people,” he muttered whilst angling his face to look at you. Everything he once knew was gone, all he cared for, all he was familiar with, gone at the snap of a finger. All except you. You were the one constant he needed in life. A scoff rumbled within your chest, and you nudged at him with your elbow.
“I gotta say,” Phil started, suddenly appearing clammy and pale, “it’s an honor to meet you. Both of you. Officially. I watched you while you were sleeping.”
An amused chortle bubbled within your throat. Jungkook cast his eyes downward to hold in his own laugh.
“Er… I mean I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, really, it’s just a huge honor to have you guys on board for this.”
Jungkook pushed himself up, feeling antsy. He stared out of one of the plane windows, murmuring, “I hope I’m the right man for the job.”
“You are!” the SHIELD agent blurted out a little too enthusiastically. With slightly flushed skin, he regained his composure and said, “We made some modifications to the uniform. I had some design input.” The last bit was said with an air of pride. Awh, cute. Jungkook had a fanboy.
Taking in another moment to fully process Phil’s words, you bit down a guffaw. Oh, no. Not that sorry excuse of a wretched swimming suit!
Jungkook’s irises flickered back to the seats to meet your mirthful eyes. “Aren’t the stars and stripes a little… old-fashioned?”
“With everything that’s happening, and the things that are about to come to light… people might just need a little old-fashioned.”
The rest of their conversation blurred into background noise as the purring of the jet beneath you lulled you into a hazy sleep, slumped against your seat uncomfortably. At one point, you recalled Jungkook slipping back to his original spot beside you, maneuvering your drowsy form so your head found purchase on his shoulder.
Things were changing, but at least you had Jungkook with you.
The helicarrier was probably the coolest thing you’ve ever seen in your life. If you had the time, you’d willingly explore the gigantic vessel for hours and hours on end. There was a heavy pang to your chest when you thought about just how fun it’d be to look around with Namjoon. An even heavier feeling sank your stomach when you thought about how Taehyung would also love to see the craft. Or, more accurately, he’d love to see you get excited over such advanced technology.
Much to your dismay, you were given little time to get reacquainted with the ground, an unfamiliar woman approaching the two of you as soon as you stepped off the plane. Your eyes widened at the sight of her. She was absolutely gorgeous; curls of dark flames framing her poised face perfectly, donning a leather jacket shrugged over a red tank top tucked into fitted trousers.
“Agent Kim Yeri,” Phil Coulson gave her a nod, gesturing to the two of you. “This is Captain Jeon and Y/N L/N.”
All business, the agent barely spared you a glance, addressing Phil first, “They need you on the bridge. They’re starting the face-trace.” Coulson paled and rushed off, muttering something under his breath about how they were always starting things without him.
“It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice.” Yeri’s voice made your eyes snap to hers, skin flushing with warmth. You opened your mouth to say something, but opted on nodding your head once you realized you hadn’t much to say on the matter. The three of you started walking together. You weren’t quite sure where you were going, but Yeri’s confident strides lessened your worries somewhat. “Thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his trading cards yet?” she asked, aiming a smirk at Jungkook.
“Trading cards?”
“They’re vintage. He’s very proud.”
You snickered under your breath, laugh dying on your tongue when the trio stumbled upon a confused man, excusing himself around a group of mechanics carrying parts to fix up a jet. A large piece of you yearned to join them; attempt to feel a semblance of what you did back in the forties again.
“Dr. Jung.” Jungkook’s eyes lit in recognition, and he stepped forward to shake the disorientated man’s hand. The frayed mousy-grey suit he wore perfectly matched his hair, which was a haphazard mess. His face bore both a painting of awkward uncomfort and weary exhaustion. You could almost relate to that on a personal level.
A hesitant smile graced his lips. “Ah, they told me the two of you were coming.”
“Word is you can find the cube?” you asked in a gentle tone. “I was hoping I could help with that. I know a thing or two about the energy source.”
Hoseok regarded you with a poorly-masked look of awe. “Yes, I’ve read about all your work with Kim Namjoon. Amazing, the two of you.” Hesitance flooded his body language. “So, uhm, is that the only word on me?”
One of your shoulders lifted in a shrug. “The only word I care about.”
A beam, a genuine one, fiddled with the corners of the scientist’s mouth. Then, he turned to Jungkook, gesturing around the busy helicarrier. “This must be strange for you, no?”
Your friend heaved a sigh, propping his hands up on his hips. “Well, this is kinda familiar,” he murmured, watching a group of agents jog around the perimeter, curving around another group that was practicing their shooting aim at mannequin targets. You couldn’t help but agree. The bustle of military life was one you weren’t unfamiliar with.
“Hey,” Yeri said out of the blue, making you flinch at her sudden presence beside you. Has she always been this close? “We might wanna step inside in a minute. It’s gonna get a little hard to breathe.”
“Is this a submarine?” The unabashed wonder in Jungkook’s question almost made you snort.
Hoseok scowled. “Really? They want me in a pressurized metal container?”
“It’s not a submarine,” you said, almost breathless as you stepped forward, closer to the edge of the helicarrier. A smile traced your lips as you turned back to look at Jungkook with excitement. This thing was taking you to the skies. “Much the opposite, really!” Water from the ocean sloshed about as the helicarrier groaned to life, revealing wind turbines larger than houses.
Wind billowed almost instantly upon the turning of the metal spokes, tousling your hair and mussing your clothes. Jungkook pulled you from the edge with knitted brows.
“No, this is much worse!” Hoseok remarked.
Yeri led all of you into the main compartment of the helicarrier. You couldn’t help but gawk at every little detail, marveling in the advanced technology splayed right before your very eyes. Even Jungkook was smiling beside you, lips parted in amazement.
Rows upon rows of sleek computers and screens with agents scampering about for work filled the room. They wore wireless headsets and modern suits with the SHIELD insignia etched into the protective fabric. In the center of all the organized chaos, stood Min Yoongi.
“Engage retro-reflection panels.”
Your breath caught in your throat. That was…
“I know what you’re thinking,” the director said as he drew nearer to you, “so let me answer before you ask. Yes, the reflective panels were your original idea. Kim Namjoon might’ve brought it to fruition, but the idea was yours. He made sure to give you credit wherever it was due. A shame you didn’t get to patent it, though. Would’ve made a fortune.”
Your heart ached at his words. Gentle was your tone as you choked out, “I’m glad my invention can be of service.”
From beside you, Jungkook fished a crumpled ten-dollar note out of his pocket, handing it to Yoongi with a sheepish smile. The man in infamous black only leered viciously before taking the money and stuffing it into his coat. You tugged at Jungkook’s arm, beckoning to the large windows. Though you quite disliked planes, the helicarrier was something different entirely. With an arm hooking around his lean waist, you leaned against him while staring out at the rapidly-shifting clouds, watching the ocean toil about hundreds of meters below you.
“That was the only money I had,” Jungkook whispered into your head.
“I’m not lending you any,” you replied just as quietly, earning a small chuckle from him. Then, you abruptly turned upon hearing Phil Coulson again.
“We’re sweeping all the wirelessly accessible cameras on the planet. Phones, laptops… practically anything with a satellite, we use as our eyes and ears.”
Yeri, who had taken to leaning over a computer monitor and swiping across the screen with narrowed eyes, piped up, “That’s still not going to find them in time.”
Hesitant, you stepped forward, raising a hand. “You need to narrow your field. Our potential region is way too large, and our energy source is big—bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before—so we have to work smarter, not harder. How many spectrometers do you have access to?”
“How many are there?” Min Yoongi asked, cocking his head whilst crossing his arms.
Hoseok picked up on your idea, nodding vehemently as he supplied you with an impressed smile. “Call every lab you know. Tell them to set up their spectrometers on the roof and calibrate for gamma rays.”
“You can rough out a tracking algorithm,” you hummed. “Basic cluster recognition. Won’t be able to exactly triangulate its coordinates, but you’ll be able to eliminate most of the candidates.”
“I can do that,” proposed Hoseok, rubbing his palms against his pants nervously. “You have somewhere for me to work?”
Bobbing his head in satisfaction, Yoongi gestured to Yeri. “Could you show Dr. Jung to the laboratory, please?”
The beautiful (and admittedly very intimidating) agent brushed past you to Jung, beckoning him to follow. “You’re gonna love it, doc. We got all the toys.”
Min Yoongi’s piercing stare was one you couldn’t easily ignore. And so, with an expectant expression plastered over your face, you looked at him once more.
“You don’t wanna go in there with him? I’m sure you could help out a lot.”
Nervousness coiled at your gut. As much as you’d like to, you didn’t think you’d be able to handle being in a lab jet yet, and leaving Jungkook here alone made you uneasy. Baby steps were the way to go, and hopping onto a massive helicarrier in search of a world-altering energy source was probably the exact opposite of baby steps.
“I’m sure Dr. Jung knows what he’s doing,” you replied wispily. Jungkook nudged your side, as if silently urging you to go. With a little more force, you spoke up once more, “I’ll stay here with Jungkook for now.”
“Suit yourself,” Yoongi quipped before whirling around to bark orders at another agent.
Releasing the sigh you didn’t know you had been holding in, you turned back to look at the clouds with Jungkook, wondering what lay in store for the two of you in the future.
Baby steps turned out to be an absolute lie.
The first thing that came into your field of view was a sea of cowering people in expensive garb, kneeling before a god. At least, that’s what he called himself. Loki wore gold as if it were only his to wear, a crown of aureate horns resting upon his slickened raven hair. A cape of emeralds billowed behind him as he stepped through the kneeling mass.
Jungkook intercepted first, blocking off a shot with that vibranium shield you’ve grown so fond of. Back in the helicarrier, SHIELD had given you all your old equipment and gadgets back, along with Jungkook’s ridiculous suit.
The parry of energy curved straight back to Loki, knocking him off his feet. Furious, the god clambered back to stand, jaw clenched.
“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing,” Jungkook said as you floated down beside him, activating your flame thrusters and pointing at him. You eyed the scepter that Loki held, glowing a strange blue. A part of the tesseract’s power was in there… you could feel it. The beginnings of a migraine danced at the center of your skull.
A cruel grin tainted Loki’s expression as he crooned, “The soldier. A man out of time. Brought your little pet with you?”
A scowl crossed both of your faces. Jungkook shook his head, pointedly ignoring his last question. “I’m not the one out of time here.”
Behind you, a shooter jet lowered down, Yeri’s voice echoing on a PA system, “Loki, drop the weapon and stand down.”
Moving at the speed of lightning, Loki pointed the scepter at the jet and shot a pulsing wave of energy towards the craft. Thankfully, Yeri managed to evade it just in time. People were screaming, scrambling every which way like frantic ants. Jungkook arced the shield towards Loki, moving forward to jab him in the face. Loki parried with a malicious chuckle, using the staff to kick out Jungkook’s legs and push him back. Taking that as your cue, flames billowed out of your weapon and you lunged forward, feinting a punch before ducking his swipe and sliding a knife out of your sleeve to slash against his abdomen.
To no avail, Loki trapped your arm with ease, twisting you sideways and throwing you to the cobblestone ground. Jungkook threw the shield again, but Loki knocked it to the side as if it were a frisbee. Much to your horror, Loki stalked forward and placed the scepter at the base of his head, sneering out, “Kneel.”
Fury boiled in your blood as you surged forward, yanking at his cape and landing a kick to the back of his head. This managed to distract him just enough to allow Jungkook back on his feet, grabbing his shield and throwing a punch to the god’s face.
Then you heard… was that rock music? You might’ve been an old soul from the forties, but you tried catching up to the best of your ability while you had the time. The familiar electric riff of a bass echoed through the air. You, Jungkook and Loki froze, eyes shifting up to the sky.
A person of crimson-and-gold metal streaked past you in a blur, pummeling Loki to the ground with such a force that made the bricks crack beneath the impact. The man stood back, his suit revealing small compartments holding bullets and launchers, all aimed at him.
“Make your move, Reindeer Games,” the metal man said in an ‘I dare you’ tone. Both you and Jungkook came forward beside him, your knives held ready and Jungkook’s shield gripped tightly in his hand.
Slowly, Loki’s golden armor faded into thin air, and he held his hands up in tentative surrender.
“Good move,” Iron Man quipped. It took everything you had in you to not slide your eyes to his suit; it was impressive technology that you were very keen on learning more about.
Jungkook exhaled a deep breath. “Mr. Kim Namjoon.”
A part of you froze. What?
Your breath caught in your throat as you turned to the man with widened eyes.
“Captain,” he replied, nodding. Then, the suit’s bright slits for eyes fixated on you. “Y/N L/N, right? My dad’s said a lot about you.”
“He’s kinda handsome,” you muttered to Jungkook, wrinkling your nose while eyeing Loki tied up in the seat opposite you. “In a sleazy, corrupt kind of way.” Your friend turned to you with an appalled look on his features and you nudged his shoulder with a playful laugh.
After a tense silence, you mustered up the courage to ask him, just quiet enough so only he could hear, “Why didn’t you tell me that Kim Namjoon junior was going to be a part of this thing?”
Uncomfort splayed across his visage at your query. “I didn’t think he’d come. I just… I don’t know, I wanted to spare you the pain of remembering.” A part of you softened at his words. His intentions were good, but you couldn’t help but be wounded at him holding information like that from you.
“We can’t keep things from each other, Jungkook.”
“I know.”
The two of you lapsed into another silence, this time comfortable and less tense.
“I don’t like it,” admitted Jungkook after a moment. You arched an eyebrow in a silent way of telling him to continue.
Unceremoniously, Namjoon stalked over to the two of you, interrupting before he could go on, “What, Rock of Ages giving up so easily?”
You could tell just by the look on Jungkook’s face that he didn’t appreciate Namjoon’s uncouth behavior. This was a serious mission, after all. “I don’t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop.”
“Still,” Namjoon hummed with amusement, “you are pretty spry for an older fellow.” A laugh lodged itself in your throat, but you masked it as a cough when Jungkook leveled you with a glare. “Must be weird, huh? You missed quite a lot of things. You know, while you were doing time as a Capsicle.”
One thing you learned about Namjoon that day was that he enjoyed provoking people purely for the fun of it. Just like his father did back then.
Before you could help yourself, you tilted your head and blurted out, “You look just like him.” For a second, Namjoon froze, an indiscernible expression painting his features blue. You gulped, suddenly realizing how inappropriate the statement was. “I’m so sorry, I—”
He raised a hand, and you immediately snapped your mouth shut. Despite your embarrassment, what you said was wholly true. They had the same tousled hair, dark playful eyes, hell, even their glasses were practically duplicates.
“I didn’t talk to my dad a lot.” His words were slightly despondent in tone, hinting at years of emotional distress. “But I do know that he never stopped looking for you.”
Bile rose in your throat, and you nodded once with downcast eyes.
“Really cool gadgets you got there,” Namjoon said, gesturing to your weapons in an effort to alleviate the rigid atmosphere. The second thing you learned about Namjoon was that he had trouble remaining serious in serious situations. “Mine are better, though. Not that this is a competition or anything.”
An airy scoff escaped you, and you shook your head with a slight smile fiddling at your lips. “Give me a week. We’ll see who’s got the better gear then.”
He opened his mouth to crack another joke, but was rudely cut off by the loud grumble of thunder, lightning streaking through the navy-grey clouds like a snake of electricity. The jet beneath you rumbled with turbulence. You got flashbacks to when you and Namjoon and Irene drove Jungkook out to the Hydra base to save Taehyung.
Your heart clenched painfully and you subconsciously stepped closer to Jungkook.
Even Loki looked spooked, eyes widened as he stared out the jet.
“What’s the matter?” goaded Namjoon. “Scared of a little lightning?”
“I’m not overly fond of what follows,” the god responded.
Breath caught in your lungs, you swiveled to look out of the window, spotting a small figure hurtle through the storm. “We’re being tailed!” you yelled, which catapulted Jungkook and Namjoon into action.
Ever the reckless one, Namjoon threw his helmet on and stalked to the rear hatch, slamming it open.
“What are you doing?” Jungkook yelled over the sudden whooshing of wind.
It happened so quickly that you had trouble processing what was going on. A man with shoulder-length locks of spun sunlight landed on the deck, rattling the plane violently with him. Namjoon lifted his hand to blast the newcomer, but was promptly flung to the side of the jet with a heavy hammer to the chest. He strode forward and wrapped a burly arm around Loki’s neck, yanking him out of his bonds as if they were brittle thread. The two of them disappeared into the stormy fog with not another word. With a lump in your throat, you dropped to your knees beside Namjoon.
“Hey! You okay?” you asked, clasping the cold metal hand of his armor and yanking him upwards.
“Peachy keen,” Iron Man grumbled out, followed by a gruff thanks.
From the cockpit, Yeri asked over her shoulder, “Another Asgardian?”
“That guy’s a friendly?” Jungkook questioned, still in shock.
Namjoon made his way to the edge of the jet. You stepped forward, reaching out as if to stop him. Then you retracted your hand, a cold slap by reality reminding you that Namjoon wasn’t his father, no matter how similar they were. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost.”
“Namjoon, we need a plan of attack!” Jungkook stood beside you, brows furrowed, torn in indecision.
“I have a plan. Attack.” With that, he blasted off into the clouds, leaving behind a faint glowing trail of orange.
Frustratedly gnashing his teeth, Jungkook hurried to grab a parachute taped to the wall, shrugging on the straps and buckling in the safety.
“Jungkook, just stay here! Those guys are literal legends—”
“I can’t just sit back and let this happen, Y/N,” Jungkook mumbled, cupping your face in his hands before gently landing a kiss on your head. Blindly, you grappled behind you for his shield, handing it to him with nimble fingers. “Don’t follow me down there, okay?”
“But Jungkook—!”
A frown made home on your lips as he shot you a stern look, before whirling on his heels and jumping off the platform.
Now, usually you’d dive headfirst into the fight with Jungkook, no matter how many times he’d tell you to stay back. But you found yourself grappling against the jet walls, short of breath. The edges of your vision flickered black and blue, and suddenly your face found contact with the floor, and you were out cold as a light.
“Stop fussing,” you hissed with a glower as you batted at Jungkook’s gloved hands attempting to stick another band-aid onto your cheek, where there was a minuscule gash streaking down your cheekbone. “It was just an accident.”
“Yeah?” your friend queried with an unbelieving arch of his brow. “That’s not what Yeri said. She found you passed out. When was the last time you ate? Slept? Maybe we should get you in the infirmary. No point in waiting in a meeting room when the whole gang is missing.”
Huffing, you bit out, “Have some patience, will you? And it wasn’t that. I… I think it was the Tesseract.”
“What? Why?”
A sad smile, a hollow one that held no true happiness touched your lips. “Haven’t you ever wondered why I survived the ice? I shouldn’t have—it’s literally humanly impossible without the serum. The only reason why I’m here must be because of that damned energy source. Getting too close to it must’ve made my body remember what it was like being frozen.”
“Just tell me you’re okay,” Jungkook mumbled. “If you’re not, I’ll take you back home right now. You don’t have to do this.”
Your nose wrinkled at his words. “And what? Leave you here with Norse Gods and Namjoon Junior? No way.”
He deflated at your words in mild relief. “Thank goodness. Not sure what I would’ve done without you here, honestly.” When the rest of the crew filed into the meeting room, all stone-faced and scowling, you immediately sat up straight, folding your hands over the round table.
Thor, in all of his muscular glory, stared out the window blankly. “He has an army called the Chitauri. They’re not of Asgard or any known world. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, and in return, I suppose, they’ll get the Tesseract.”
“That means he’s building a portal,” you jolted upwards at the thought.
Hoseok crossed his arms over a purple button up. “That must be what he took Dr. Selvig for.”
“Loki has him under some sort of spell,” Yeri stated, leaning forward on the table, looking away as a stormy expression flickered over her usually stoic visage. “Along with another one of ours.”
That made your stomach drop. This situation was far worse than you had initially bargained for when you first flipped through that manila file.
“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here, is he?” asked Jungkook.
“I don’t think we should focus on Loki.” Hoseok grimaced, fidgeting with his glasses anxiously. “That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.”
The blank look in Thor’s eyes quickly shifted to one of defense. “Be careful with how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother.”
“He killed eighty people in two days.” Yeri narrowed her eyes, shifting back on the leather chair.
“... He’s adopted.”
“Iridium,” Hoseok mumbled as he inspected a monitor of brain-washed agents stealing the element. “What do they need iridium for?”
All of a sudden, Namjoon strode through the doors with a flourish, announcing his presence loud and clear for everybody in the room. You could’ve sworn you saw Jungkook roll his eyes to the side. The iron suit was nowhere to be seen. In its absence, Namjoon wore a dark, long-sleeve shirt with an obscure rock band you didn’t know of.
“It’s a stabilizing agent,” the man said with a cocky smirk. “So the portal won’t collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD.”
Leaving Jungkook’s side, you pushed yourself from the chair and made your way beside Hoseok, pointing at the iridium displayed on the screen. “Namjoon’s right. A bridge with no support is bound to collapse. Throw in trusses, and you have yourself a sturdy transportation system. One that can stay up and running as long as Loki wants.”
A mock-gasp left Namjoon, leveling you with an amused look. “Don’t be a show off, that’s my job!” Snickering, he stood up to the main monitors and lifted his hands as if conducting an opera. “Raise the mizzenmast! Jib the topsails!”
Everybody stayed quiet, save for you and your muffled snort.
“The rest of the raw materials, agent Barton can get his hands on easily,” Namjoon uttered, coming to stand beside you. He practically radiated confidence, uncaring about being wrong because he knew for a fact that he was right. A part of you yearned to feel an ounce of what he exuded. What was it like to be so certain of everything all the time? “The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube.”
“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” you asked, turning to look at him curiously. “Last I checked, you specialized in physics and electronic engineering.”
“Oh, so you’re checking up on me now?” Namjoon simpered with a suggestive lilt, to which you scowled and shifted your irises to the artificial lights of the helicarrier’s meeting room. “I read up last night. I’d expect someone like you to have read through Selvig’s notes. Extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did my homework here?”
You spent last night curled up in bed, crying yourself raw over thoughts of Taehyung, sobbing with his cold dog tags clutched tightly in your fists. But Namjoon didn’t need to know that.
“Didn’t get the opportunity,” you hummed, shrugging your shoulders.
“It’s alright, you get a pass.” He gestured to your bloodied face. “I fought a god, and you fell on the ground.”
On second thought, the resemblance between Senior and Junior was narrowing quickly.
“Hey! Lay off, will you?” barked Jungkook, muted anger emanating from his terse form. “Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?”
“He would have to heat the Cube to a hundred twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier,” Hoseok mused, swiping across the monitor to draw out a simple model of the portal.
Tentative, you shook your head. “Unless Dr. Selvig figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.” Throwing Namjoon a playful glance, you childishly raised your brows. “I didn’t get to do my homework yesterday, but I read ahead on everything before the mission started. Not that it’s a competition or anything.” The last bit was a snarky reference to what Namjoon had said about your weapons when he first met you. You were only met with an impressed chortle.
“Well, if he could do that, he’d be able to achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Dr. Jung narrowed his eyes in thought, finally stopping his fingers from fiddling with the hooks of his glasses, perching them on the bridge of his nose.
“Finally!” Namjoon exclaimed as he threw his hands up into the air dramatically. “Someone who speaks my language!”
“Is that what that was?” Jungkook looked as befuddled as a child who’s lost their parents at a store. You made your way back to him, gratefully sinking back into the seat and curling into his side.
As Namjoon spoke to Hoseok (or, more accurately, poked fun at Hoseok’s ability to… morph), you shut your eyes and leaned against Jungkook, drained from the fight and tired from the constant noise.
Min Yoongi came not longer after, swiftly telling Namjoon, “Dr. Jung is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him. Y/N too. The three of you are probably the most brilliant available minds we have in America right now.”
Jungkook patted at your head, voicing what you were already thinking. “What about that staff of his? Y/N said they could feel its powers from the Tesseract.”
Chewing at the inside of your cheek, you righted yourself and nodded along. “The scepter may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon. “
“I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn the two of my sharpest men into his personal flying monkeys.”
“Monkeys?” Thor asked with a concerned tone. “I’m afraid I do not understand.”
“I do.” Jungkook perked up, clapping his hands once. “I understood that. I… got that reference.”
Grimacing, you draped your elbow onto Jungkook’s shoulder, hushing him quietly. “Alright, calm down, big guy.”
Namjoon obnoxiously rolled his eyes while scoffing, before promptly addressing you. “Wanna play with Hoseok and I in the lab, Y/N?”
You could feel Min Yoongi’s one good eye piercing you alive. Hesitantly, you nodded an affirmative, pushing yourself up with an affectionate clap to Jungkook’s shoulder. You might’ve felt a little off yesterday, but you supposed that it was just first day jitters. Pain still hung over you like a dreary storm cloud, a constant damp shroud of despair hovering over your form.
You think you’re ready to open up an umbrella.
The scepter was an oddly shaped thing, hilt holding intricate designs engraved into the polished metal, the top end consisting of two elegantly-curved blades that held a fractal of the Tesseract’s power between them.
“Gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig’s reports of the Cube,” Hoseok observed as he scanned the scepter. “But it’s going to take weeks to process.”
“Bypass the mainframe,” both you and Namjoon said at the same time.
“Jinx, you owe me a soda.” He pointed to you without sparing you a glance, though there was a grin playing at his lips.
A frown creased your face. “I don’t get that reference, Namjoon. You gotta stop with those until I’m all caught up.”
“I’m not waiting around for you. Here, catch.” Namjoon threw you a USB, which you swiftly grasped and plugged into the computer. “Direct the route to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops.”
You clicked your tongue at the side of your mouth. “I can’t believe I signed up for this mission. I barely packed anything.”
“You think you’ve got it bad?” Hoseok chuckled as he carded a hand through his tresses, tapping his pen against the table in thought. “I only packed a toothbrush.”
There was a crash that echoed across the lab as Namjoon threw another crumpled piece of paper to the overflowing trash can, making the bin fall over and all the scrapped ideas scattered over the floor.
“I’m not picking that up,” you said before returning to your work.
Namjoon faux-glared at you. “You know, the both of you should come over to Kim Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R and D. You’d love it, it’s candyland.” Once Hoseok timidly declined the invitation in accordance with the green fellow, Namjoon sidled up next to you. “We’d love to have you. What you’ve got up in that noggin of yours is valuable stuff. Say, you ever thought about getting a suit? A proper one?”
“I’d love to build myself one. Just need the right equipment. Haven’t had the time, really,” you responded around a mouthful of a sandwich you were forcing down for lunch. Namjoon reached for the other half of your sandwich, but you didn’t have the heart to stop him.
“I’d be more than willing to give you the equipment. Or a suit for that matter.”
All of a sudden, you stopped working, dropping your sandwich and dusted your hands off before propping them onto your hips. “Namjoon—can I call you that?” At his nod, you carried on, “Namjoon, we only met a couple hours ago. What’s going on? Why are you… I don’t understand what you’re trying to do. Size me up? Compete with me? Take advantage of me?”
“Uhm,” the billionaire held up a finger, “it’s called making friends, Y/N.”
“But…” you paused, cautiously hesitant with what you were going to say next. “Why would you want to be friends with me and not Jungkook? Is it because of your dad?”
Namjoon pinched at the bridge of his nose. “Jesus, you sounded like Wendy for a second there. And, no, I just think you’re cool. Is that so hard to believe?”
“Yes,” you deadpanned.
“Fair enough.” Namjoon shrugged. “Still making you that suit, though.”
Not bothering to spare him a response, you returned to work with a heavy sigh. It wasn’t long after that you heard a gentle zap of a low-voltage taser spark from the other side of the laboratory. Hoseok and Namjoon were children, you were sure of it.
“Ow!”
Namjoon leaned forward, observing Hoseok’s skin for any… noticeable changes. “Really? Nothing at all?”
The lights came into your field of view as you rolled your irises. “Quit it, Namjoon.”
As if on cue, Jungkook stormed in, a frown heavy-set on his features. “Are you nuts?”
Namjoon barely paid attention to your friend, continuing to pester Hoseok (who had smiled awkwardly and meandered around him to continue working). “What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?”
“Is everything a joke to you?” Jungkook spat, frustration getting a little too out of hand. At this point, you hopped off your stool and walked to them, stopping beside Jungkook with a hand on his forearm. You said his name gently, which made him glance at you with a far softer look than what he supplied Namjoon.
“Funny things are,” replied Namjoon.
With pursed lips, you gently shook your head at Namjoon, telling him to keep his clam shut. Though, with what you knew of him, you surmised that that was highly unlikely.
“Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, Doc.”
“It’s alright,” Hoseok chuckled airily. “I wouldn’t have come onboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things. Or zappy things.”
Namjoon plucked the pen from the doctor’s fingers and flicked it at his forehead. Living embodiment of a child. “You’re tip-toeing, big man. You gotta strut that stuff.”
“You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Kim,” Jungkook reprimanded.
Chewing on your lip, you pondered on saying something, telling them to stop bickering, but you kept your mouth snapped shut.
“Do you think I’m not?” Namjoon shot back just as quickly. “Why did Yoongi call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us?”
Blinking in mild surprise, you reared around to look at him clearly. You had never pegged Namjoon as a conspiracist. “You think Min’s hiding something?”
“He’s a spy.” Hands splayed over the table as he slanted over the sleek glass to lean close to you. “Dubbed ‘the’ spy. Narcissists, am I right?” You snorted out a laugh, turning back to Jungkook, who sported an even gloomier frown than what he came in with.
“Come on, Jungkook,” you said, tilting your head to him, “Namjoon has a point. I don’t like to be kept in the dark, either.”
Even Hoseok nodded along with you. “‘A warm light for all of mankind’ is what Loki said to Yoongi. I think he was referencing you,” the doctor murmured, plucking a blueberry from a platter of fruits Namjoon held. Where in the hell did he get that? “Even if Clint didn’t tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”
“The Kim Tower?” you queried, hopping up on the table to try and pluck a pineapple off the plate. “That big, ugly building in the middle of New York, yeah?” Jungkook chuckled lowly at your words, but Namjoon stuck his tongue out at you and yanked the fruits away.
“It’s powered by an arc reactor. A self-sustaining energy source so that the building could run itself for around a year,” Hoseok explained to Jungkook, who had trouble keeping up.
“Prototype!” the billionaire exclaimed, setting the platter to the side so he could fiddle with the monitor. “I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”
“Brag,” you muttered beneath your breath.
“I heard that.”
“Yeah, whatever.” With a gesture of your hands, you mimicked connecting the dots to Jungkook. “So, if Namjoon’s a big name in such a scarce industry, why hasn’t Director Min called him beforehand? You told me yourself, Jungkook, you didn’t know he was coming. Namjoon didn’t know until just a few days ago, either. They didn’t call him onto the Tesseract project before Loki came, see? What was SHIELD planning to do with the source in the first place?”
Namjoon pointed at you with a grin. “Ten points to Ravenclaw.”
“I don’t get the reference, Namjoon.”
Jungkook seemed to grow more agitated and confused by the second. If he was to be honest, the fact that you were siding with Namjoon and not him wounded him more than he’d care to admit.
“We can watch the movie together. It’ll be great.” He clapped his hands together. “Anyways, I should probably look into what they’re planning to do once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files.”
Now, this was a surprise to you as well.
“I’m sorry,” Jungkook stepped forward and held his hands up with tightly-drawn brows, “did you just say—?”
“Yup!” Namjoon turned the monitor to briefly flash his handiwork. “Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I’ll know every dirty little secret SHIELD’s got to hide. I feel like a parent finding their kid’s porn video folder.”
“That’s… amazing,” you breathed out just as Jungkook grumbled out ‘awful’. “Not the porn part. Obviously.”
The bridge of his nose wrinkled. “And yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around.”
Scoffing, Namjoon countered swiftly, “An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.”
“I think Loki’s trying to wind us up.” Jungkook exhaled a shallow, frustrated breath. “This is a man who means to start a war. If we don’t stay focused, he’ll succeed. We have orders. We should follow them.”
“Hm.” Namjoon pretended to consider him for a second. “Following isn’t really my style.”
“Yeah, you’re all about style, aren’t you?”
A dark eyebrow arched, Namjoon’s irises running over Jungkook’s suit in an exaggerated manner. “Of the people in this room, which one is wearing A, a spangly outfit, and B, not of use?”
Alright, maybe you laughed at his jabs before, but that was uncalled for. “Namjoon, come on. Jungkook’s just trying to stop the bad guy.”
“And if we were working for the bad guys all this time?” Namjoon narrowed his gaze at you. “What then? I put on a party hat and tell you I told you so?”
Having heard enough, Jungkook firmly gripped your arm and pulled you so you were forced to rotate and look at him. “Y/N, you’re not really with these guys, are you? That information might be classified for a reason.”
A frown crossed your lips, and you carefully extracted your limb from his grasp. “Look, Jungkook, I’m just trying to look for the Tesseract. But… if it turns out I can’t trust SHIELD, then I have to know so I can stop it from getting into the wrong hands. You understand that, right?”
A piece of your already shattered heart crumbled apart even further when Jungkook shuffled backward, shaking his head in palpable disappointment. He left the laboratory after shooting Namjoon a dirty glare, muttering something about finding the Tesseract.
“That’s who my dad never used to shut up about, huh?” Namjoon rolled his eyes so hard it was a wonder his pupils weren’t permanently stuck looking into the back of his skull. “I’m wondering if they should’ve kept him on the ice.”
Freezing at the mention of Namjoon Senior and the particularly harsh jab at Jungkook, you felt the inevitable rush of tears prick at the corner of your eyes angrily.
“Oh, really?” you asked, crossing your arms with a watery scowl. “Would I have to go back down in the ice with him, then? Everything I lost, it wouldn’t have mattered because I should be dead too, right? Let me tell you something, Kim. You are nothing like your father. Your father was an amazing man who helped millions. And there you stand, making fun of my only friend like he did something wrong. If this is your way of making ‘friends’, I don’t want to be part of it.”
Stunned silence flushed over the lab. You were breathing heavily, casting a deathly glower towards Namjoon, who had finally learned how to shut up for once in his life.
“I’m going back to work,” you murmured, anger fading away just as quickly as it came. You hadn’t the energy to remain mad.
At one point, Hoseok started speaking to Namjoon again, but you drowned out their hushed conversation, too busy trying to stave away the hot wave of choked up emotions, all with one hand clutched at the dog tags looped around your neck.
Yeri was ruthless. She drilled you with questions on your background, your knowledge, what you were good at, what you needed practice with, all while holding the same disinterested expression.
“Ever killed anyone?”
“Nazis,” you whispered after a moment’s hesitance.
She was quick to move on, not even batting an eye at your morbid response. “Family?”
Your eyes found home on the grooves of the room’s flooring. “None.”
The atmosphere lost a little bit of its stiff tension at that.
It seemed all the questions were worth it, because the agent wore a slight smile as she dropped her tablet. “You’re all good,” she said softly. “Come on. Director Min wants you up there with me.”
“What are we doing, exactly?”
“Loki must have a plan. He wouldn’t have given himself up that easily,” she explained as she led you through the maze of corridors. “Our job is to get a handle of what he tries to tell us.”
“Why… Why does Yoongi want me in there?”
Yeri sent you an amused side-glance. “He said you’re one of the world’s brightest minds, no? Not only that, but you’re the only one out of all of us that had some sort of experience with the Tesseract. Could be used to our advantage.”
How? By making me dizzy? You thought almost bitterly, biting at the inside of your cheek.
The glass chamber that Loki was kept in was an impressive one. You raised your eyebrows at the solid infrastructure, the glass surrounding the god glowing a faint tint of cerulean. There was a smile that twisted his handsome features in a way that screamed malice.
“There’s not many people that can sneak up on me.” His words, clearly directed to Yeri, were said in a glib fashion, the green fabric of his outfit seeming to ripple with every step he took closer to the secured barrier. Then, his eyes found yours, storm-like. Electrifying. “Not you, though. I heard you coming from decades away. An old soul, aren’t you?”
“You knew I’d come,” you whispered, narrowing your own lids in suspicion.
The god spread his arms out as if he were a winning gladiator in an arena. “I presumed after, actually. After whatever tortures the director would concoct for me, they’d send you. As a friend… a soothing balm. After all, it’s what you did back in the forties, was it not? Licked the wounds of your precious Captain and the brown-eyed soldier of—”
“Enough,” you hissed out, fury staining your intonation like inky blood would a river. There was no way you were letting Loki press into your past like that.
Stock-still, an ever present shadow of cautiously-masked indifference that went by the name Yeri Romanoff spoke out from beside you, words melded from cold steel, “I want to know what you’ve done to agent Barton.”
“I say I’ve expanded his mind,” sneered Loki.
“And then? After you’ve climbed the top of the mountain and sat on a throne of severed heads… what happens to his mind then? A man doesn’t bother apologizing to a flower they’ve trampled on.” It was hard to believe that you were speaking words of philosophy to a murderous god.
“Interesting,” Loki hummed.
There was a minuscule crack to Yeri’s expressionless features. “Will you hurt him?”
A laugh, one that fell like ghostly wind chimes, reverberated throughout his cage of glass. “Is that love I detect, agent Yeri?”
“Love is for children,” Yeri swiftly replied. That definitely stung a bit. “I owe him a debt.”
This man was a master manipulator, you surmised as he beckoned for Yeri to go on. He planned for her to pour out her soul, only to then plunge his taloned fingers in and rip it apart by the seams. While the assassin beside you prattled on about her past life of blood and death with Barton, you took to observing the god with something akin to curious disgust. He said something that made Yeri visibly freeze up, and you turned to her in concern. Then, Loki was suddenly in front of the glass, only inches away from you, slamming his fist against the barrier with a resounding thud that made both you and Yeri flinch harshly. He spoke more, empty taunts of a painful death. Out of character, the deadly assassin spun on her heel and hunched over slightly, sniffling as she held down wracking sobs. All fake, you deduced once you spotted her tapping her finger three times against her leather-clad thigh, just for you to see. You couldn’t help but marvel at her acting skills.
“And you,” Loki spat out of the blue, which made your gaze snap up to his. “You walk around this craft as if you’re free of sin. Your ledgers are gushing just as red as the murderer beside you. Worse, in fact. Kim Taehyung plummeted from a train to his icy death while you sat in a lab and fiddled with your thumbs. If you had gone with them on the mission, he wouldn’t be in brainwashed pain right now. No, instead, you holed up with Kim Namjoon and convinced yourself that you were making a difference. I’m afraid to be the one to inform you, but you did nothing. Is that what you pathetic mortals call love? Something to toss aside as if it were meaningless?
“This is my bargain, you mewling quim. I’ll make Barton kill the both of you slow and intimate, in every way he knows you fear. Then he’ll wake just long enough to see the mess of blood dripping from between his fingers, and when he screams, I’ll split his skull!”
Rage clouded your vision, roiling through your veins. Tumultuous were your thoughts as you grit your teeth and forced your burning gaze away. None of what he says should be listened to, you told yourself, according to all the legends, he is the god of trickery. So why was it so hard to look past his words? Why did it strike you true and hard? And what did he mean by Taehyung being in brainwashed pain? There was no point in dwelling on that; as Hoseok perfectly mentioned before, Loki’s head was but a bag of cats.
“You’re a monster,” Yeri choked out.
A heinous laugh rang from the crystal prison. “Oh, no. You brought the monster.”
Bingo. A smile suddenly broke through your mourning frontage. “So, Hoseok, huh? That’s your play?”
For the first time since you stepped foot into the holding quarters, Loki appeared genuinely surprised. “What?”
Yeri placed a warm hand on your shoulder before leading you away hurriedly, pressing the coms in her ear and spoke, “Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Hoseok in the lab, I’m on my way. Send Thor as well.” She paused in her swift strides abruptly, sending forth a sarcastic slant of her lips to the befuddled god. “Thank you for the cooperation.”
With that, she stalked out of the room.
God, she was so cool. You followed out with your own congratulatory grin splaying over your lips, but that heavy feeling of impending dread still clawed at your chest, begging to be let go. Let go, let go, let go, the faceless voice shrieked.
It seemed your umbrella had holes in it.
You walked straight into a heated argument between Namjoon, Jungkook, and Yoongi.
“Did you know about this?” Horseok immediately asked Yeri, who stepped into the lab after you, followed by Thor.
Know what? Your eyes landed on the contraption Jungkook had clutched in his arms, which he threw onto the table with a look of disgust. Oh. You were hoping not to be right, just this once. Namjoon caught sight of you, nodding his head once before rotating the monitor to show you the progress on tracking the Cube. You still hadn’t forgiven him for his earlier negligence, but you shot him a grateful look nonetheless.
You meandered around the bristling agents to get to Jungkook, placing a hand on his arm, a silent question hanging between the two of you. Jungkook might have also been mad at you before, but there were far more pressing matters to tend to at the moment. Not to mention that you were right to be suspicious, anyways. SHIELD was planning to make weapons out of the source.
“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?” Yeri asked, cocking her head to the door.
“Heh, I was pretty well removed back in Calcutta until you came slithering in,” replied Hoseok as he recoiled away from her.
“Loki’s manipulating you.”
“And you’ve been doing what, exactly?”
Despite his obvious restraint, Yeri persisted. “You didn’t come here because I batted my eyelashes at you.”
“Yeah, and I’m not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy. Now, what I’d like to know is why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.” Hoseok slid his glasses off the bridge of his nose and hooked them onto his button up shirt.
Exasperated, Yoongi leveled a glare with everybody in the room. Even with everyone against him, he still managed to appear intimidating. You had to give him props for that.
“Because of him.” He pointed to Thor.
“Me?” echoed Thor, affronted.
Yoongi took to pacing around the lab as he explained. “Last year. We had another unearthly visitor. Leveled a small town completely from a grudge. SHIELD learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”
“My people want nothing but peace with your kind!” Thor bellowed.
“But you’re not the only one out there,” you whispered, finally understanding what the director was getting at. The rest of the team’s gazes on you made your skin flush with heat. “That inevitably means there are more threats as well.”
Solemn, Yoongi bowed his head at your words. “The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched. That can’t be controlled.”
Jungkook, however, was still stiff with opposition. “Like you controlled the Cube?”
“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki and his allies here,” Thor growled out. “It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”
Suddenly, everybody started speaking over each other. Your heart thudded within your ribcage; noise… too much noise.
“A higher form of war?” Jungkook whispered.
“You forced our hand!” barked Yoongi.
Namjoon deadpanned, “Nuclear deterrent. Because that always calms things right down.”
“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Namjoon?” The eyepatched director shot back.
Jungkook took a step forward. “I’m sure if he still made weapons, Namjoon would be neck-deep in—”
“Hold on, how is this now about me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, isn’t everything?”
“Jungkook!” you interjected, casting him a warning glare.
Even Thor managed to throw in his two cents. “I thought you humans were more evolved than this!”
“Excuse me, were we the ones to hop onto your planet and start blowing things up?” Yoongi was starting to sound exasperated.
Too many voices, too much noise. You could feel that familiar pounding of a headache taking root into your skull, tendrils of pain curling around your head.
“Are you guys really that stupid?” Yeri hissed. “SHIELD monitors potential threats.”
“Captain Jeon’s on threat watch?”
The arguing blended into indiscernible voices, replaced by a prominent ringing that sang its warbling song into your ear drums. Right behind all of you stood Loki’s scepter, the Tesseract’s power glowing its distinct electric blue. Was it just you or had it gotten brighter since you stepped into the room?
“What are we, a team? No, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We’re… we’re a time bomb.” Agitation colored Hoseok’s features a strange hue.
“You need to step away,” Yoongi warned.
Of course, Namjoon interposed loudly, “Why shouldn’t the guy let off a little steam?” Then he had the audacity to land his palm on Jungkook’s shoulder, just as you did so many times. But Jungkook merely scowled at this, quick to shove his arm away.
“You know damn well why! Back off!” Jungkook commanded in a stern tone.
“Oh, I’m startin’ to want you to make me,” he taunted.
Alright, you supposed that was your cue to step in. “Namjoon, stop. We don’t have to argue about this, it’s a waste of time—!”
“Big man in a suit of armor.” Jungkook was so caught up in his own emotions that he accidentally cut you off before you could finish. His nose wrinkled as he stared Namjoon down, pulling at you so that he stood between you and the offending man. Even subconsciously, Jungkook was trying to protect you. “Take that off, and what are you?”
“Genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist.”
You would have laughed if not for the incredibly terse situation at hand.
“I know guys with none of that are worth ten of you,” Jungkook snarled. Taehyung. You knew he was talking about Taehyung. Who else could it be? “I’ve seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself.”
“Hey, come on.” You sidestepped his bristling form, wedging yourself between the two men who had taken to glowering at each other, almost nose-to-nose in their dick slinging contest. It wasn’t like Jungkook to lose control like this; throwing insults wasn’t exactly what you’d call regular behavior for him. The stress was most definitely getting to him. “Will you guys quit it?
Despite your protest, Jungkook kept speaking directly over your shoulder. “You’re not the kind to make the sacrifice play. Never laid down on a wire so the other guy could crawl over you.”
“I think I would just cut the wire,” Namjoon quipped, picking at his nails disinterestedly.
A strained silence flourished over the group for a beat of a second.
“Jungkook,” you whispered-yelled, “come on, just stop.” The headache brewing in your temple was growing worse, pulsating and throbbing with a raw urgency.
It stung how he ignored you completely. “You might not be a threat, Namjoon, but you better stop pretending like you’re a hero.”
Alright, that was it. Glunching, you pushed at Jungkook’s chest, afraid that he was going to maul Namjoon right then and there.
“A hero?” the billionaire mocked. “Like you? You’re a lab experiment, Jeon. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.”
You whirled around, crossing your arms with a snarl. “Jungkook is a Captain with or without the serum, Namjoon.”
“Untrue,” he countered, “because if your pal there didn’t have the serum, he’d be dead.”
A bitter scoff fell past your lungs. “Oh, dead like I am right now? I’m as serum-less as it gets.”
“Put on the suit. Let’s go a few rounds,” Jungkook jabbed.
“No!” The pain in your head was starting to grow unbearable. “You guys are being children. We have a job to do.”
Thor started laughing from behind all of you. “You people are so petty,” he crooned, “... and tiny.”
A heavy sigh escaped Yoongi. “Yeri, please escort Dr. Jung to his—”
“Where?” the scientist asked with a resentful tone. “You rented my room!”
“The cell was just in case—”
“In case you needed to kill me!” Hoseok roared. “But you can’t. I know, I tried.”
The room fell so muted that you could hear the fluttering of your heart warble in your ears.
“I got low. I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth. The other guy spit it right back out. So I moved on… focused on helping other people. I was doing good until you dragged me back into this freakshow and put everyone here at risk.”
A gasp lodged itself in your throat, but nothing came out. Instead, you slid out your knives in one hand and slowly lifted a wrist-blaster you had quickly built during your lunch break. In your peripheral vision, you caught sight of Yeri and Yoongi both placing their hands on the holsters of their guns.
“Dr. Jung,” Jungkook said, stepping forward. “Put down the scepter.”
Horrified, the scientist loosened his grip on the staff, tossing it onto the table with widened eyes. You let out a loose sigh of relief and lowered your hands. A light ding emitting from the corner of the lab made you swivel around.
“Got it,” Hoseok grumbled as he stalked to the computer. “Sorry kids, you don’t get to see my party trick after all.”
“You located the Tesseract?”
“I could get there the fastest!” Namjoon proclaimed.
“You’re not going alone,” growled Jungkook, shoving the man back with an arm to the chest.
Namjoon shot him a dirty glare while shoving the offending arm away from him. “You gonna stop me?”
“Put on the suit, let’s find out!”
“I’m not afraid to hit an old man,” Namjoon snickered.
Jungkook gnashed his teeth together. “Put on the suit.”
At this point, you didn’t bother trying to stop their childish gimmicks. You were far more interested in the Tesseract.
“Hoseok?” you asked, turning from the arguing duo, noting the scientist’s confused guise. “What is it?”
Life always had a way of flipping itself upside down. Abruptly, the helicarrier jolted violently and an explosion rippled clean through the lab. The glass panes shattered into a million fractals of glittering shards, hailing down onto the floor. Amber, ochre, and ashen smoke filled your vision in the form of flames and sparks. You were blown to the side of the room, thankful for the repulsion technology you had clipped on for the mission, sliding down a wall with minimal impact.
“Jungkook!” you shrieked just before accidentally inhaling a lungful of smoke. Eyes burning, you shoved your nose into the crook of your elbow and shuffled forward, carefully stepping over the cracks of the floor and leaping to where you saw his familiar blue suit. He was sprawled out on the floor, in the midst of pushing himself up with a groan.
“Are you okay?” he asked upon seeing you. At the grimaced bob of your head, he turned to Namjoon, who sported a thin rivulet of scarlet blood running down the side of his face. “Put on your suit.”
The three of you sprinted down the halls to the main room of the helicarrier.
“Engine three down! I’ll meet you there!” Namjoon yelled, relaying the information Maria Hill had told him through the comms. Jungkook took off in the direction he pointed, and you were about to follow after him before Namjoon stuck his arm out, leading you to the armory room. “I built you a suit! It’s made out of spare parts, but it’ll do for now! Consider it an apology gift.”
Your jaw unhinged at his words. “What? A suit? Namjoon, when in the hell did you…? Nevermind, we have to hurry!” The two of you ushered into a separate room. With a click of a button, the walls slid open to reveal Namjoon’s infamously sleek suit, along with a second, more shoddier version of it.
“Thanks,” you muttered beneath your breath. “Could use some tweaking, though.”
“I had two hours, give me a break,” Namjoon rolled his eyes, but offered you a weak smile. It wasn’t properly said, but you could tell that he was genuinely sorry for his harsh words earlier today. He might’ve had a riff with Jungkook, but the man didn’t want to be at a stalemate with you.
The suit he made you consisted of glossy platelets of silver metal, glowing a faint blue once he activated it. “Calibration is automatic,” he said as he stepped into his own iron attire. “Just say the word and it’ll be at your beck and call.”
Grateful, you murmured another word of thanks before shuffling forward and allowing the suit to close in on you. It fit like a glove, adjusting to meld over your body perfectly. Floating blue programs fanned in front of your vision, and you blinked in awe at seeing the suit’s stats in the top right corner.
“Ready?” Namjoon called.
“As I’ll ever be.”
With that, the two of you took off. You were slightly wobbly with the jets coming out of your hands and feet at first, but quick to adjust. In a way, it wasn’t unsimilar to your anti-gravity models. Namjoon led the way, flying out of the helicarrier and rounding to where a large chunk of the craft was demolished, just beside one of the main engines. Jungkook stood in the middle of the wreckage, looking at you with widened eyes.
“You’re flying!” he exclaimed.
“Sorry I can’t take you up here with me,” you replied as you drew nearer. “No offense, but you’re a little heavy.”
A small smile quirked his lips, but it was short-lived, dying away when Namjoon spoke again. “I gotta get this superconducting coolant system back online. Before I can access the rotors, work on dislodging the debris. I need you to get that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in the overload position!” Jungkook nodded, springing into action by leaping across the ruins and yanking open the hidden panels.
“Stand back, Namjoon,” you said, allowing him enough time to jerk back before blowing apart the metal parts covering the engine.
“Could’ve done with more warning!” Namjoon shrieked, but you only half-shrugged.
“What does it look like in there?” you asked Jungkook.
“Uh…” the blonde scratched at his head, miffed. “Looks like it runs on electricity.”
A snort escaped you. “Thanks, Jungkook! Just what I needed to know.”
As Namjoon gave Jungkook orders (and Jungkook willingly complied, though reluctantly, much to your surprise), you flew around the engine, scanning all damages and calculating the most efficient way to keep the craft going with it momentarily down.
“Relays intact! What’s our next move?”
“Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won’t re-engage without a jump. I’m going to have to get in there and push,” Namjoon said, his voice echoing through your suit’s comms. His words shot a chill down your spine.
Panicked, you quickly replied, “Namjoon, if that thing picks up speed, you’ll be shredded!”
“That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage the maglev, and that could—”
“I don’t speak science!” Jungkook asserted, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
The blasters on your feet blew saxe flames as you flew over to where Namjoon was. “The red lever beside you, Guk!” Namjoon pointed to the large slants of metal debris wedged between the engine blades. You nodded in understanding, using the lasers embedded in the bionic arm of your suit to break them apart. “It’ll slow the rotors down long enough for us to get out.”
“Us?” Both Namjoon and Jungkook protested.
Your nose twitched. “You’re going to need someone there to catch you should you fall, Namjoon. We need all the manpower we can get.”
“No! Y/N, you don’t—!”
Before Jungkook could finish the sentence, Namjoon interjected. “They’re right! Stand by the lever, wait for my call.”
Worry clouded your consciousness when you heard gunshots ricochet from the area Jungkook was in, followed by the clanging of that vibranium shield. You relaxed slightly, returning to the task at hand.
“You okay, Jungkook?”
“I can handle it!” His voice was strained over the comms.
With all the obstructions cleared, you flew up to Namjoon, lining beside him, preparing to push at the engine to get it going.
“We’re losing altitude!” Yoongi bellowed through the crackling transmission.
“Yup, noticed!” quipped Namjoon just before igniting the blasters. You mimicked his actions, steadily gaining velocity as the both of you shoved with your combined forces.
The surge of resistive wind was trying its hardest to push you back, but you thrusted yourself along, brows knitting in concentration. Every part of your body burned, and you quickly grew dizzy at the constant spinning. Adrenaline coursed through your veins, viscous and golden. You could feel the helicarrier plummeting down, down, down, your gut sinking along with it.
No. No, that can’t happen! People can’t die because you weren’t doing enough. Not again. Not ever again.
A worn yell ripped from your throat as you kept propelling ahead. There was so much blood rushing to your head that you hadn’t even heard Namjoon’s mirrored scream.
“Cap, hit the lever!” He gritted out. From a quick glance to your right, you could see that his grip was faltering. “NOW!”
“I need a minute here!” Jungkook’s voice echoed back.
Your lungs burned when you cracked your lips apart to wheeze out his name, desperate on your tongue. You weren’t quite sure how much longer you could last.
The engine started moving too quickly for you and Namjoon to keep up. For a millisecond of an inhale, you looked to Namjoon, and he looked to you.
“Oh, shit,” both of you whispered in horrified synchronization. Then, the both of you were sucked downwards, flopping beneath the spinning metal like washed-up fish on a beach. Pain blossomed over your muscles, and you were eternally grateful for the strong armor that encompassed your body. Now, you weren’t one to be afraid easily. But stuck here, iron grinding against steel wailing in your ears, sparks of heat dancing in your vision, you don’t recall ever being more panicked in your life.
Except… well, except driving a plane straight into the ice.
Utter relief flushed through your system only seconds later. The barrier you were clanking against slid open promptly, and you flailed in the air for a bit before gaining your footing once more, turning on the blasters to keep you upright. Thank god for Jungkook and his lever-pulling skills.
You heard more shots, phantom explosions echoing in your ears followed by Jungkook’s pained grunt. With your breath caught in your throat, you flew around and zeroed in on a man with a gun, pelting Jungkook with shots, which he narrowly parried away with his shield.
Tunnel vision made you snarl out a filthy obscenity before you jetted forward, punching the man square in the face. The both of you went sprawling to the ground, the impact knocking him clean unconscious.
Panting, you rolled over and wheezed out a broken laugh before slipping into cold darkness, Jungkook’s panicked yells echoing in the recesses of your mind, and Taehyung’s warm smile flickering behind your eyelids.
“You’ve got bruises everywhere!” The man in front of you clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have put yourself on the line like that.”
A frown tainted your split lip. “You’re not allowed to tell me that. It’s what you do every day, Guk. I might not have the serum, but I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Stop fussing so much, will you?” your voice was but a hushed whisper, soothing in tone. It made Jungkook stop bristling, but he wrapped a protective arm around you nonetheless. Jungkook had changed back into a navy long sleeve, clinging onto the muscles of his biceps. You would’ve laughed at the ridiculously tight fit if your lungs didn’t ache whenever you took a breath.
The meeting room grew eerily quiet. Even Namjoon was silent, brooding mutedly as he propped his chin on his knuckles. Min Yoongi was the only other one in the wrecked room, standing as still as a shadowed statue. The helicarrier was in absolute shambles. Everything was covered in splinters of glass, and the flooring was crumbled. The lights flickered on and off repeatedly, pathetically dousing the four of you in dim amber luminescence for momentary periods of time.
“These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket,” Yoongi muttered, flicking cards onto the table. Bloodied, they stained the surface a startling shade of cerise, sending a chill thrumming up your spine. “Guess he never did get you to sign them.”
A sinking feeling graced your abdomen, and you sent Jungkook a worried glance, observing the way his eyebrows creased into a crestfallen expression. He gingerly reached over with his free hand to pick one up, frowning when he turned one over to see himself saluting, marred by the smudges of dried ichor. You could only shuffle closer to him, resting a pounding head against his shoulder.
“Where’s Hoseok?” you murmured, voice far more frail than you would’ve liked.
Yoongi grimaced. “Not here. Thor’s nowhere to be found as well.” You waited with bated breath for his next words. “We were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though. There was an idea—Namjoon knows this—one called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could be something more. To see if they could work together when the world needed them most. Fight the battles that we couldn’t even begin to hope for. Phil Coulson died still believing that idea. In heroes.”
At that, Namjoon huffed a resigned sigh, pushing his chair from the table. The screech of metal against glass made your head throb. Before you knew it, he was striding away, shoulders squared.
“Well,” Yoongi swept his gaze to the two of you, “it’s an old-fashioned notion.”
A gulp lodged in your throat, and you did nothing but clutch onto Jungkook all the tighter.
You found Namjoon outside. It’d been hours since Yoongi talked to you. You spent the free time fixing up the suit Namjoon had given you, installing new compartments and fixing up all the bugs. When you were finally satisfied with your handicraft, you packed the suit away and took off to find him. He was leaning on the helicarrier’s railway, features drawn into a pensive expression. The breeze blew gentle, tousling his already haphazard strands of hair. He hadn’t looked surprised to see you when you sidled up beside him, adjusting your arm sling so you wouldn’t accidentally elbow him in the abdomen.
“Hi,” you whispered. “Got sick of Guk. Kept bugging me about the suit, so I wanted to come out and check if you’re okay.”
“‘M fine,” Namjoon replied. There was a gentle smirk on his lips from your slight jab at Jungkook. “Not. It’s whatever.”
An off-hand hum rumbled from deep within you. It was obvious that Namjoon was upset about Coulson. There was a certain fear inside him that you understood all too well; tumultuous and clamoring for attention. Namjoon was worried.
“As a kid I looked up to you,” he said, which made you look at him with a pleasantly surprised raise of your eyebrows, “because my dad said you were the coolest person he’s ever met. Drove himself insane trying to find you and Capsicle.”
A puff of a sigh left your sore lungs. “I miss him.”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “I do, too.”
The both of you lapsed into sweet silence. Silence was rare with Namjoon, but he figured he owed it to you to keep quiet for once in his life.
“I was in love with another man.”
“Sergeant Kim Taehyung?” Namjoon’s gaze flickered down to your cast once he fully turned to you, curious. “Famous name. You and Taehyung canoodling wasn’t in any history textbook I’ve read, though.”
Snorting, you knocked your uninjured elbow against Namjoon’s arm. “We were quiet together. It was nice. Taehyung was my whole world. He still is.” A reminiscent smile painted your lips at the memory. “Then… your dad surprised the hell out of me by asking me out for fondue in Switzerland. And I told him I was taken.”
“You’re telling me Pops had the hots for you?”
“We all get lonely, Namjoon.” You cleared your throat, shifting slightly. “Then… then Taehyung gave his life during one of their missions. It was hard. Real hard. But your dad was there to help me through it. And Jungkook. I wasn’t alone. I never was.”
Namjoon’s eyes seemed to soften. The weight of whatever he was feeling suddenly felt cleaved in half. “I’m sorry.”
“I want you to know, Namjoon. You’re not alone, either. Our team might’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make things better.”
There was a strange look on his face when he mused out loud, “You’re something else, aren’t you?”
Kim Namjoon was a stranger to raw emotions. Maybe you’d share your holey umbrella with him.
“So… what do you think your superhero name is gonna be?”
“What?”
“You know,” Namjoon gestured to himself, “I’m Iron Man. Capsicle in there is Captain America. Romanoff is Black Widow. You?”
A superhero name. Strange to believe you were a hero now. A part of you always thought that that was Jungkook’s role; the face of justice and courage. It hadn’t even occurred to you that you were a part of it just as much as he was.
After a moment’s hesitance, you breathed out. “Galvano. I’ll be Galvano.”
“Sounds like a villain name.”
“Shut up, Namjoon.”
Eventually, you and Namjoon retreated back into the helicarrier’s lab, bumping into Jungkook on the way.
“I’m sorry about Coulson,” Jungkook offered, obviously trying his best to extend an olive branch. “He seemed like a good man.”
Namjoon shrugged. “He was an idiot.”
Crossing his arms, Jungkook asked, “Why? Because he believed in us?”
“For taking Loki on alone.”
“He was doing his job.”
Scoffing, Namjoon shook his head. “He was way out of his league. Should’ve waited.”
“Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Namjoon,” you murmured lowly.
Oh, you knew that look. One of grief, loss, pain, only thinly masked by a snarky attitude. Peel off the layers… and you get something ugly, deformed, terrifying. Sweeping it under a rug doesn’t change the fact that it hurts. It was as if every step forward you took with Namjoon, there was an invisible barrier that shoved you ten paces back.
“Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?” Jungkook queried, narrowing his striking grey eyes.
A ripple of tension rocked the atmosphere on its heels.
“We are not soldiers!” Namjoon bit out at a volume that made you flinch just slightly. When his eyes flickered to your concerned ones, the tension holding his shoulders captive alleviated minutely. “I’m not marching to the director’s trumpet of war.”
“Neither are we, Namjoon,” you countered with a firm tone, shuffling forward. “He’s got the same blood on his hands that Loki does. Right now, we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Loki still needs that power source. If we can put together a list of potential…”
Namjoon was looking at something. Trailing off, you traced his line of sight and noticed the faded crimson stain on the wall, meandering down the sleek surface and dripping into the shadowed gaps of the vent. You weren’t quite sure whose blood that was, but it spurred Namjoon on enough to snarl out, “He made this personal.”
“That’s not the point!” Jungkook asserted.
“Correction,” a pompous finger stuck up in the air, “that is the point. That’s Loki’s point. He hit us all where we’re most vulnerable. Why?”
What was Namjoon getting at?
“To tear us apart,” replied Jungkook, looking every bit as befuddled as you were.
“Yeah, yeah, divide and conquer is great but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us and be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”
Oh. Oh.
“Right!” Jungkook nodded along. “I caught his act in Germany.”
Namjoon snapped once. “Bingo! Those were just previews, this is opening night. And Loki, he’s a full-tilt diva, right? Flowers, parades, costumes, you name it!”
A celebratory grin graced your lips. “He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered over it. Sound familiar?”
It dawned over Jungkook and Namjoon at the exact same time.
“Son of a bitch,” uttered Namjoon. With a cackle of delight coming from you, the three of you sprinted out of the lab, ready to launch into fighting mode once again.
If you had gone back in time and told yourself that you’d be fighting an army of aliens from outer space, past-you would’ve raised a skeptical eyebrow and continued on with whatever you had been doing.
Even now, as you were blasting the grotesque creatures into bloody-green fragments, you still had a hard time processing that this was all real.
You flew around buildings, swerved around cars, and dove beneath the aliens’ hovering crafts, taking down each and every one in your path. You kept a steady watch on Jungkook and Yeri and Barton fighting below, practically ants at your height. The portal above all of you glowed ribbons of electric blue, just the same as the Tesseract, giving way to the endless nothingness of space.
Soon after, not only were you fighting the Chitauri, but their beasts of sentient metal plates floated their way in as well, bulldozing straight through buildings and monuments. They were larger than life itself, spanning as tall as skyscrapers. Your breath caught in your throat as two barreled in your direction, metal mouths groaning open to reveal rusty slates of sharpened teeth.
“Namjoon! Are you seeing this?” you yelled into the comms, narrowly dodging the creatures, pulling out an infinitely-expanding blade (an invention that you were practically dying to put into use) and landing onto one of the humongous brutes, driving the sleek steel between the plates of its spine. You then used the force of your thrusters to propel you through the air, dragging your cutlass clean through its tough hide. A shrill roar of fury echoed throughout the city as the beast went down, crashing into the cleared-out streets, a mess of road asphalt, concrete and car parts.
Namjoon’s voice crackled in the comms as he replied, “Seeing, sure! Still working on believing! You seen Hoseok yet?”
“Hoseok?” you echoed, incredulous. “We haven’t seen him since he turned into Green Bean, remember?”
“You were meant to call him Mean Green, Y/N, come on!” Namjoon chuckled as you lithely ducked one of the Chitauri’s arrows aimed straight at your skull. “Just keep me posted!”
Responding with a gruff affirmative, you jetted back down to ground level, sprinting over debris and dodging up-turned cars to reach Jungkook. Yeri and Barton were kneeling behind a taxi and you plopped down beside them, catching your breath. With a press of a button on the side of your head, your helmet folded away and you saluted the blonde with a meek grin.
“Nice to officially meet you! Really cool bow!” you called out over the explosions.
Before Clint could respond, Yeri sprang up, took two dead-aimed shots that cleaved straight through the skulls of Chitauri, and then dropped back down to her haunches. “Could we save the introductions until after we’re done fighting aliens? We got this down here! Go!”
“Yes ma’am!” You could’ve sworn you saw Yeri’s pretty lips curve into a minuscule grin. With a sheepish smile, you nodded once before jetting back up, helmet folding over your temple once again as you shot down more Chitauri coming their way. Higher up, you scanned the buildings, looking for anybody who hasn’t evacuated yet. Your brows creased upon seeing a whole floor of people cowering on one of the top floors, hiding beneath their desks.
Bracing yourself for impact against the glass, you dove through the windows and rolled back onto your feet, huffing out a relieved exhale.
You ran a quick scan of the stairs, blue wreckage filling your vision. Damn it all, the exits were obstructed by rubble far too heavy to lift. “Everyone, the stairs are blocked! There’s an escape ladder on the left, let’s go! Move it!” you ordered, guiding people from their catatonic states of shock towards the exit.
So this was what it was like being a hero. Throwing yourself over the grenade to keep everybody else safe.
A Chitauri bastard weasled through the window you had broken into, snarling in its filthy alien language. You pulled out your true-aim knives, arcing them towards the creature with a yell. It split him straight into half, dark blood staining the office carpets. Screams erupted pandemonium as people scampered to leave in panic. Good. At least now they’re moving their asses.
Satisfied once the whole building was clear, you flew out of the building, immediately met by Namjoon whizzing past you.
“Okay, I got its attention! What the hell was step two?” he shrieked. With widened eyes, you looked over your shoulder and flinched at the sight of another large Chitauri beast. Blue flames erupted from your blasters as you threw yourself ahead of Namjoon, flying around the buildings semi-smoothly.
“You’re an idiot!” you screamed, turning on auto-pilot so you could fly backwards. With a snarl, you shot explosive capsules into its widened mouth, jetting away with Namjoon hot on your tail just as the whole front of the beast detonated into a million fragments. Still, it wasn’t enough to kill. No, you were pretty sure you’ve only managed to make it mad.
“Wow, you should be a motivational speaker!”
Snorting, you replied, “Nah, that’s Jungkook’s thing.”
“I can hear you two, you know!” Jungkook barked as he swung his shield to take down two aliens at once.
“We can all hear you!” exerted Yeri while swinging up around a Chitauri’s neck and holding it in a chokehold.
Your eyes bugged as you spotted Hoseok zooming through the cluttered streets on a weathered motorcycle, coming to a grueling stop by Jungkook and Yeri and Clint.
“Namjoon! Hoseok is here!”
A smile crossed the billionaire’s face. “Great! Capricorn, tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.”
The pair of you nodded at one another, flying across the city, steadily leading the goliath metal serpent around skyscrapers.
“I don’t see how that’s a party,” Yeri deadpanned. You laughed hoarsely at that.
Dazed, you watched in muted awe as the awkward doctor you grew quite fond of morphed into the Hulk; beige skin melting into a furious shade of green, muscles expanding ten-fold and ripping clean through the fabric of his button-down. This was a battle of beasts, you mused, repressing the urge to whoop excitedly when Hulk dug his fists into the snake of steel, effectively grinding the behemoth to a halting stop. Namjoon shot a grenade into its exposed flesh once the metal plates shifted apart, and it came crashing down with another deafening eruption.
You lowered down beside Jungkook once the smoke subsided, grazing the cold material of your suit’s hands over his own warm, gloved ones. A strange feeling danced at your chest upon seeing the rest of the team forming a defensive circle with you. United, determined, ready to give their everything. Even their lives.
This was the Avengers.
For the first time since all the way back in the forties, you felt whole again.
And there were more coming through the portal.
“Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment,” Jungkook said. “Clint, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Namjoon, Y/N, you got perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.”
“Good luck, Jungkook,” you murmured, a stark contrast to all the yelling you’ve done previously. Said man shot you a sweet look that lasted only a millisecond.
“I was asking Galvano, actually—!” Namjoon gave Hawkeye no time to complain, yanking him up by the pits and soaring through the skies at neck-breaking speed.
“I didn’t get that reference,” you hummed in slight amusement when you matched pace with Namjoon.
The two of you swerved farther out of the center of the city. “The movies are an absolute snoozefest. You’d love it!”
“Are you calling me boring?” you gasped in faux-offense as you slashed through three Chitauri soldiers in one go.
Namjoon was never given the opportunity to slide in another joke because an alien struck him down, sending him flailing towards the streets. Angry, you shot rapid-fire at them, taking down any that were tailing you along the way. Quick to recover, Iron Man bounced back beside you. The two of you bobbed your heads at one another before jetting opposite directions.
A part of you was surprised at how long you’ve endured. The adrenaline fueled you like gasoline would fire; you felt it surging through your veins and invigorating every fiber of your being.
At one point, you bumped back into Yeri again, struggling to hold herself against three aliens at once. You quickly shot them down, sending her a fumbled wave before turning to blast at the creatures closing in. Jungkook joined you, even letting you use his vibranium shield as a reflector for your lasers. The two of you worked together in perfect harmony. It reminded you of that last battle you fought with him before going into the ice. Back when everything was so much simpler. Well, that was an understatement. At least there weren’t aliens in the forties.
A triumphant smile made its way onto your face when Thor came thundering down and shot rivulets of electricity through any aliens near his vicinity. You took that as your cue to leave; you were needed elsewhere.
Just before you could jet back off, however, Yeri’s voice crackled through your comms.
“I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can close it.”
“Do it!” Jungkook yelled.
“No!” said Namjoon. “I got a nuke coming in. And I know just where to put it.”
A gasp lodged itself in your lungs. “Namjoon! No, you don’t have to do that, we can—!”
“Save all the power for the trip, Jarvis. Don’t wait up on me to watch those movies, Galvano!”
Even on the brink of death, Namjoon was still cracking jokes.
No. No, you couldn’t lose Namjoon, too. You’ve lived through one too many losses already. Tears pricked the corners of your eyes as you bit down on your bottom lip, watching the streak of gold-and-crimson sail through the wind, holding a nuke twice his size.
Then… then he was gone.
You waited, praying for whatever God (but not the one of thunder heaving breaths right beside you) was listening. Come back. Come back, Namjoon.
“Close it,” Jungkook muttered, despondent.
No, no, no. You couldn’t let it happen. Not again.
Your helmet shrunk away when you pressed the button, gasping for air. “Jungkook, I have to go get him.”
“Are you insane? Y/N, no—!”
A part of you should’ve felt guilty for flying off so suddenly, leaving Jungkook coughing amidst your wake of dust. The portal was closing fast, and Namjoon was nowhere to be seen. Tears trickled down your cheeks, blown clean off your skin and into the whistling wind.
Kim Namjoon was a man of surprises. Damn him for nearly giving you a heart attack.
Suddenly, his limp body fell through the narrow remaining gap of the portal, swallowing itself closed just as Namjoon sank back to the Earth. Breath stuttering, you forced yourself forward, swiftly catching him through the air and jetting back down to the ground. The landing was sloppy; mostly due to the unexpected weight, but also the mess of tears obstructing your vision. Both of you were sent tumbling to the ground, rolling painfully over glass, metal, and rock.
You were pretty sure you broke several more bones (which Jungkook would probably hound you over), but none of that mattered. Because Namjoon was unconscious, still as stone.
The rest of the team was quick to surround you as you crawled over him, prying his mask off and shaking him vigorously.
“Namjoon? Namjoon, please.” You slammed your against the concrete beside you, the metal fist leaving dented cracks on the sidewalk. Immediately, you grappled at his suit, uncaring if you had to rip it apart piece by piece to get Namjoon to start breathing again.
Hoseok, no, the Hulk stomped up beside you, thumping at his chest and belting out an enraged roar, so loud that your head spun at the volume.
Lo and behold, Namjoon jolted awake, dark eyes darting every which way in panic. “Jesus fucking Christ! What the hell? What just happened?”
Tears were still streaming down your face, but you didn’t have the heart to stop yourself. Jungkook wrapped his arms around you, shushing you gently.
“It’s over,” he murmured into you, pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead. “It’s over, you’re okay. We won.”
“Please tell me nobody kissed me,” Namjoon wheezed out, still laying star-fished on the road.
Laughing into Jungkook’s hideous suit, you kicked at Namjoon’s leg. “Nobody kissed you, Namjoon.”
“Woohoo,” he weakly cheered. “Hurray. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s take a day. You ever tried a shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint just two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it. I’m really hungry.”
Rolling your eyes to the clear skies, you shook your head while wrinkling your nose. “Okay, Namjoon. We can go get shawarmas.”
As you smiled down at him, turning back to Jungkook with a watery grin, you realized that it was perhaps time to put the umbrella away.
