Fool's Gold, Finale

It had started when the Americans had stolen from him.

Not him directly, of course. But his father had worked all his life on the fabled Fusion Reactor, had devoted almost all of his waking days in cracking the code, working in tandem with his partner from overseas. And he had been there, been present to witness the birth of a new age of clean, effortless energy. So when his father died, and the American had copied the blueprints and unveiled their joint creation as his own, it may as well have been plucked right from that child's hands like candy taken by the school bully. But unlike most children, who would have crawled off to weep in a playground corner, Ivan simply grew bitter and hateful at a world that seemed to thrive on parasitism, lies and backstabbing.

How he smuggled himself aboard the ship bound for America, he could only remember faintly. But building the harness, with it's energy whips that would cut the lying businessman down like wheat... He could still remember every intricate piece and screw and wire. And dressed for war, he strode upon the shores of the enemy and cut them down as he headed for the lair of his hated foe. Even when the police surrounded him, guns pointed for his head and screaming orders, he felt himself untouchable.

Then his powers awoke. And his world became crushing, breathless pain.

When he awoke, the stranger in blue was standing over his body, washed upon the shoreline of some foreign land. The metal would never come off, he was told, for his powers had come too strongly, and that was all there was. And the chance for vengeance might never come again. But, said Rapture, there was a far better target for his anger - the world which had seen fit to allow a man like that to come into existence and poison good people with their greed and lies. Better to attack the root then waste time on individual leaves.

Thus did Ivan accept the mantle of Mr. Silver of the Magpies.

But even in their employ, Ivan lived the life of a hired gun. It had been his life long before that fateful trip to America, how he had built up the simmering anger that had motivated him. And he had no real respect for Godfather, who cackled like a kid playing with action figures and seemed detached from literally everything. So when the contract came - from an incensed former warlord named Spinal, no less - to kill off the Destined Hero, the symbol of all that was wrong and pestilential with the world... The hunt had been the best part - following eyewitness accounts and news reports, faking passports and hiding being false identities all in the name of chasing his prey down.

A shame his current location had to be built upon a Rift.

Because then he'd met the one called Ash, and things had gone to hell.

Up until then, Ivan had been like a tank. Unstoppable, impregnable, crushing everything that came his way. And now, here was a thing that, no matter what he did, continued to stand tall and punch back with just as great a force as he could muster. The unstoppable force had met the immovable object, and it was with frustration and not a little fear that Mr. Silver had retreated that day. Godfather shrieking at him for dropping his duties for the sake of a contract had been the least of his worries.

And then, whilst awaiting fresh orders, the call came that he had to be responsible for an important prisoner, taken during the invasion of the new world. And who should it be but Ash? Ivan knew, then, that his chance to break this pompous idiot had come, to prove that he was indeed the superior man and to destroy the foundation on which his beliefs were built. Godfather said he had to be alive, never intact, and the Russian was nothing if not capable of exploiting loopholes.

He'd forgotten how long it had taken for triumph and scorn to turn into simmering rage as the man refused to break.

Torture did nothing. Sending Hannah to pummel him did nothing. His beliefs remained unshaken and undeterred, no matter what was thrown at him. It had been Ivan who had crumbled, growing more and more angry with every instance his victim refused to give way or snap, and the anger seeped out of him and made even his own subordinates afraid. Who or what was this blonde idiot, who seemed made of Divinium itself? What kept him going through all of this?

But Ivan knew one thing. Even as Rubble turned against him for slipping the pill into her drink, even as his own scientists questioned his motives, he would find it. That chink in the armour of the man known as Ash Brynn-Marsello, that supported everything he believed and thought and said. The crack that held together a man who was the opposite of him in every way possible.

And then he, Ivan Vanko, would tear him in two.

It seemed inevitable.

Ash's hands made a dull thwapping sound as he smacked them against Ivan's chest in repeatedly strikes. Hwump-hwump-hwump-hwump. Each blow as ineffective as the last; all they were doing was pushing Ivan back a few steps.

"Ha, now you see idiot, you cannot-!"

Ash zipped in, sliding a leg behind Ivan's and shoving with his shoulder. Normally, it would have just knocked Ivan to the ground, except Ash had made him fall down at a precise angle, the Ironsides leader smashing his head against the edge of one of the portal's computer banks. Nowhere near a knockout blow, but it enraged the Russian-esque superhuman again, Ivan roaring as he swung a leg at Ash, the prisoner dodging out of the way.

"HOW? You have NO POWERS!"

"True. Can't blast you or up my strength to rip your armor apart with my bare hands. But you couldn't take away the residual powers in my body. Still can't."

Ivan snarled, remembering the chains...

And something else. His rage became a dark chuckle, and then a segment of metal ripped off the wall and flew into him.

"Balls." Ash said, and then he was flying into another wall.

"Ivan!" The voice of another Magpie - thickly Spanish, and throaty like a corpse - cut into Ivan's reverie at that moment. "Quit screwing around, tonto, and neutralise the prisoner!" The Russian growled, but otherwise made no sign he'd acknowledged the other man as he pulled himself upright.

The spanish voice was about to say something else when the door he was standing nearby abruptly closed in his face. Ash had recovered and run for the lever-esque door switch, flipping it to seal himself and Ivan in the room.

For two seconds. Then the switch flipped itself, courtesy of Ivan's powers. He chuckled again, Ash looking dismayed as the door opened back up to show all the Magpies (which now included one of Ivan's peers) still there.

"Well, you have to admit, was worth a shot."

Ivan picked up a trash can, crushed it into a ball, and hurled it at Ash. Ash dodged, only for the metal can to bounce off the wall and smash him in the back, sending him sprawling on the floor.

"WATCH THE SWITCH, IDIOT! You break that and the damn door will be stuck closed until the whole system's rebooted."

"Suka, suka, suka..." Ivan said, and as Ash tried to get up he tore another panel off the wall and flattened him again, moving to stomp on his ankle...

Ash got out of the way, grabbing the sheet of twisted metal, spinning up to his feet, and hammering Ivan with it as a makeshift bludgeon. Whack. Whack. Wha-

Metal wall. Suddenly it was flying back and smacking Ash in the face. Blood flew.

"Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" Ivan said.

"What are you, ten?" Ash said.

Ivan's response was to hammer Ash with a mighty punch. He thought he saw a tooth fly out.

He also saw, rather than heard, the portal opening back up. Ivan was nothing if not impatient. The override code opened the door and shut down the portal system, but without follow up programs, for something as complicated as the portal machinery it was more like a sleep mode than a shut off. Something must have 'woken' the network back up. For a moment, Ivan debated crushing it, leaving the fool wholly at his mercy.

It was then the stranger who had spoken before stepped in. Through blurred vision, Ash caught a glimpse of blood-red armour and night-black cape, of a gurning skull mask framing mad, narrow eyes. Obviously another of the Magpie leaders - he vaguely recalled seeing that face somewhere before...

"Ivan, you idióta! Don't touch that! If the computer systems are damaged...!"

"Stay back, Harold. He's mine!"

"Whatever." said Harold. Ivan turned back to his target...

Who was gone.

Not through the portal. Instead he'd snuck behind him.

Leaping. Driving a knee into his back, sending the top heavy semi-Russian falling onto his face. Ash seized onto the Russian's helmet and began slamming his face into the floor. Again. Again.

No Hannah this time, but also not an equal amount of surprise. Roaring, Ivan seized his own armor and threw himself upwards, all the way to the ceiling, smashing Ash between him and it. Ivan landed on his feet when he came back down. All Ash could say was he didn't land on his face.

Ivan did that for him, pouncing and hammering down with another punch. Wham. Wham. Blood splattered on his knuckles, even as his own blood roared in his ears and his heart thrilled.

"IVAN! GODFATHER WILL BE PISSED ENOUGH OVER THE PERSONEL LOSS! DO NOT KILL HIM!"

Harold again. Funny how someone so obsessed with death wanted to keep him alive. Then again, who knew what went on inside his head. But Ivan's...Ash knew that very well, a fog of murk and pain floating over his vision.

"I know not what you did," he heard the man growl behind ringing ears. "Or even how. But when I find them, I will not be as kind to them as I was to you. If I cannot break you, then I can at least scar you!"

The fist, briefly, stopped.

"You think you know regret? How it works? Stupid man. I will introduce you myself!"

Ivan pulled Ash up, pointing him at the portal, his lone escape. One way. No one was coming back through it to save him.

"So close. Watch it slip away."

Ivan threw Ash down before it, turning him over and clamping his hands down on Ash's throat once more.

"YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE MADE AN ENEMY OF ME."

Ash garbled something.

"...what?"

A low whisper, beyond Ivan's hearing.

"...WHAT?" Ivan said, bending his head down.

Ash's hand clamped on his face.

"I said, fucking magnets, how do they work?"

But you couldn't take away the residual powers in my body...

Including the powers of a Center. You just had to pick the right time. How do magnets work?

Opposites attract...flesh and steel. Good and evil. Right and wrong.

Likes repel.

Ivan didn't bellow this time. Ivan SCREAMED, the feeling not like when he was remade, except instead of the metal flying to him, it was flying WITH him, his own powers turned on him as Ash shoved him backwards and sent him flying into the doorway and the hallway beyond, Harold barely able to react before he was flattened and the Magpies behind him were smashed aside like bowling pins, Ivan's lament and rage getting farther away as Ash staggered to his feet.

To the door. He helped himself to some of the fallen Magpies' strength, and then grabbed the door lever and flipped it again, Harold looking up dazed and angry as it closed in his face again.

Ash ripped the lever clean off. An explosion of sparks seared his skin, and the door whined and emitted an odd grinding noise. Ash blearily looked back at the portal. Still open.

"Right back at you, Mr. Silver."

Ash limped over, as he tried to recall Tracy's ways. Just make sure the portal was stable...

The door bent inwards. It wasn't a striking noise so much as an OVERWHELMING noise. Ash glanced back at it. Metal. Ivan surely could have just pushed through it like paper...unless?

"Must be one of those non-ferro metals. Smart woman, that Godfather." Ash muttered, as he repeated Tracy's steps on the keypad. Ivan's bellows echoed in his ears, but the door was holding.

Somewhat. Ivan had gotten a hand in and was starting to crush the door to his side. Was he now so mad that he would wreck the portal? Wouldn't he have done so already?

Well...nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was why Ash was here to begin with, as he stumbled towards the portal.

"I WILL USE THE BOMBS!"

Those words cut through to Ash. He stopped, despite himself, he looked.

"IN THEM! THE SWITCH IS RIGHT HERE!" Ivan snarled, the door having been halfway bent out of place, allowing him to reach his upper body through. "IT HAS A RANGE OF A HUNDRED MILES!"

"Think they're a bit...outside that." Ash said.

"You think you are smart? That you've WON? Then tell me, fool! How are you going to CLOSE THE PORTAL WHEN YOU GO THROUGH IT?"

"You want to come say hello? I'm sure some people will be glad to see you..."

"Idiot! You think I will let the portal remain one way? I will simply have it adjusted to go both ways! So run! Run to them! You can tell them how you doomed them all, before I step through, press the switch, and step right back! How considerate of you to place them on another world! It will ensure I don't kill any of my LOYAL troops!"

"...You're bluffing."

"Heh." Ivan rasped, continuing to crush the door so he could fully enter. "No. I just know you, prostak. So good, so kind! You will NEVER allow harm to come to them! You won't even take the chance! So the only chance they have is if you destroy those machines, trapping yourself here and giving them time to scatter away from my wrath. Or will you finally give in? Trade your life for theirs? I think not. You will stay, and you will bear the brunt of their failures, and Godfather's failures, LIKE THE FAILURE YOU ARE."

Ash could say nothing. He looked at the portal, then at Ivan. His shoulders slumped, as his eyes fell downward. He was suddenly...very very tired.

Good man...

"Hah. Even when good knight wins, his blade breaks. Any last words, little knight?"

"...................they were sometimes known as the Twelve Peers."

"...what?"

"Now, historically, they were the foremost members of Charlemagne's court. Although many of their most famous exploits are largely fictitious. Propaganda, to demonstrate Christian martial superiority over the Saracen hordes."

"WHAT ARE YOU BABBLING ABOUT?"

"Well my friend..." Ash said, bending down.

Picking up Blindspot's grenade harness. Yanking the wire that pulled every pin on the numerous flashbangs and normal grenades he had on the vest, the action also releasing them to clatter and roll across the floor.

Even with the mask, Ash could see Ivan's expression.

"THAT'S a paladin."

KABOOM.

Fool's Gold, Part 5

Then.

"Ficken!" shrieked Godfather as she staggered back into her control room. "It's all going to Schieße!"

It really was. Between the sudden attack on the facility, her troops getting slaughtered and those blonde-haired poofs breaking several ribs... And the worst thing about it was that it had started so well, too - collecting all those wonderful materials, something that would really elevate the Magpies into a force to be reckoned with. What the hell had gone wrong, to send things spiralling down the shitter in such a short time?!

Okay, rhetorical question. She was so going to dock Ivan's pay when they got out of this mess. And Rapture would be delivering his usual spiel - like she cared about that blue-suited spaz.

There was only one thing for it. Pushing aside a startled techie, she snatched up the microphone he'd had on his desk.

"RETREAT!" she practically screamed for all to hear. "ALL UNITS, RETREAT TO THE PORTAL!"

When in doubt, cut your losses and try somewhere else. It was a policy that had served her well so far, and she wasn't going to drop it now.

----

Now.

"Tracy, can you hurry it up?" Willis said.

"This isn't my area of expertise!" Tracy snapped back. The portal room, very much like the Stargate TV series Ash was vaguely aware of, but didn't actually watch, was crammed full of Magpies, most whispering nervously to each other or just sort of staying out of the way, though a few were guarding the door.

Good thing, as it meant the soldiers that came in were swiftly cut down with clubs of ice (frozen milk actually) and a normal crowbar. One managed to draw his gun...

"STOP." Willis ordered.

And Whisper's voice controlling talent quickly took care of that.

"SHOOT YOURSELF."

The guard put the gun to his head. It fired...into the ceiling, Ash having grabbed the man's arm and yanking it up, knocking the guard senseless with a punch instead.

"No." Ash said. "I know you're scared, but no killing. Not unless you can't do anything else. Please."

"He wouldn't hesitate with us! Do you really want to risk that?"

"Yes." Ash said, gathering the beaten soldiers and indicating they should be thrown out into the hallway leading to the portal room. "Can we lock this door?"

"Yeah, but all the guys in charge have an override code. We don't have any technopaths with us...we could throw the switch to close the door and then wreck it, but this whole area's wiring is wired together...it could disrupt the portal." Tracy said.

"How long until we have a portal?"

"Can't say!"

"How long before they notice their guards got knocked flat?"

"Probably not as long."

"...All right, close and lock the door. And let's hope the left hand can't figure out what the right hand is doing."

---

Then.

"...you mean. this is all?" asked Godfather, voice low.

The man known as Muerto nodded, solemnly. "Si, ma'am."

Godfather stared across the hangar. She needn't have bothered - a mere glance was enough to tell that what they'd salvaged wasn't nearly enough. The vast majority of it had been destroyed in the attack, and the few crates and boxes they pulled through, some dented and others blackened, were far below the number she'd been hoping for. There was no way she could run a war machine on this meagre supply, as radically powerful as it all was.

Godfather groaned, and rubbed her temples. In front of her, the Magpies awaited her command with tense anticipation. Behind, Rapture's steely gaze bore into the back of her skull. Fuck the rock and the hard place, this was more like being between a spiked wall and a pit full of rabid spiders. Keep it together, keep it together...

"Alright," she managed, "new plan. We give everyone two months to recover and recuperate after this fucking train-wreck. Then we gather what we've got and try again somewhere else. Those co-ordinates Dallas copied before she left sound promising - from what I gather, it's another place like ours, except they don't have fucking superheroes crawling out of the woodwork. Lightning doesn't strike twice, after all."

It took her a few moments to realise they were still staring. Shit, they were doubting her. Any show of weakness, especially in a moment like this, was tantamount to baring your throat and asking for it to be quick and painless. You had to show you knew what you were doing, get them back on track before any of them started asking questions...

"Dismissed," she snapped. "And somebody turn off that alarm!"

But she knew, from the mutterings and slumping of shoulders as they left, that the senior Magpies weren't so sure about this caper anymore. Except for the clown, who giggled and cartwheeled away as though he was at a theme park.

Fucking weirdo.

----

Now.

The alarm was still going. Whether it was due to the events that had led Ash and co here, or what they were doing, no one knew. Thankfully, most everyone had cleared out of the portal room, mainly because they wanted to get away from Godfather and she was among the very last to leave, making taking it over not that difficulty.

"I think I've almost got it...damn." Tracy said. "Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is we'll soon have a portal. The bad news is, it'll be one way only. I can't figure out a duo-directional portal."

"Anything else?" Ash said.

"Yeah...it's not going to be all that stable. We'll have to pace who goes through."

"Unstable portals have their own issues. Everyone, you need to take off everything you have on you that has any kind of moving part or electronics. Phones, entertainment devices, weapons, everything. I hung around with a woman who did stuff with portals: she told me that if one of those goes off while you're traveling, you might not exit so well. Or at all. Or in one piece. Clothing should be fine, everything else, ditch it." 

"...I've been waiting for an excuse to do this, then!"

A clunking noise, followed by a crunch, revealed the end of the helmet Hannah had been wearing when she'd brought the others round. This was followed by a series of similar noises as everyone else began to destroy their own gear, heeding Ash's warning as they eliminated the things that might screw them over.

Tracy nodded at this. "Better safe than sorry. Knew a woman who took her phone through a portal. Very messy."

"Who's going through first?"

"Whoa, careful careful!" Declan, nee Blindspot said, as a female Ironsides Magpie tried to help him take off the vest he had all his trademark weapons attached to. "I have a wire that pulls all the pins at once, if you don't know where it is you could pull it by accident."

"...You put a wire on your clothing that can set off all your grenades?"

"Yes?"

"WHY?"

"...I don't know. I was...drunk."

"Get it off safely then. I repeat my question." Ash said.

"I will." Willis stepped forward, face set. "This was partly my idea. I should be the one responsible for making sure everyone gets through."

"Take this."

Willis found the Magnificence being tossed to him.

"DON'T draw it. I can't use it in here with you guys. Throw it through first if you're worried about carrying it. When you get there, yell for sanctuary, surrender. Use that as proof you're with me, it's one of a kind. Tracy, let me see how that works when you open it. I'm going through last."

Tracy nodded, then turned back to the console and punched a button.

The portal opened. It's a short sentence, but it contains a lot of incident. Imagine a flower blooming in fast motion, mixed with a Rubicks Cube solving itself and that was what it was like. Stare at it too long and you'd get a mild contact high from the afterimages.

"I've set the co-ordinates," Tracy cut in after a moment, rubbing her steamed-up glasses. "And it's on auto-transmit as well. All that's needed is to walk right in."

"Then get going. We've gone too long without getting got."
--

Then.

"Ma'am?"

She wheeled around, dark clouds building about her. "What?!"

She regretted saying that, because it turned out to be the cute secretary who she'd hired the year before. Valerie, was it? Very good with numbers, sterling eye candy and had the pestilence of a saint when it came to her moods. The latter was demonstrated when she flinched, but kept her level tone of voice as she continued onwards with her query.

"What about our prisoner, ma'am?"

Godfather paused. That was a good question, actually. She'd had the vaguest inkling that maybe Ivan hadn't been the best person to put in charge of somebody as important as that particular prisoner. Especially when it came to keeping him intact as per her demands. After all, he was the sort of person who tended to follow the spirit of an order rather than the letter - a mad, ocelot-headed spirit that only he could see. But still...

"He goes with us," she finalized, at last. "Get Ivan to fetch him."

Valerie nodded, and walked off. Godfather tried to comfort herself by watching the blonde's swaying hips as she left, but it didn't do anything for her this time. Verdammt. It was going to be vodka and cable TV night again...

---

Now.

"Willis is through." Tracy said.

"Okay, everyone! One at a time, ten-fifteen seconds between each person if-"

THUD.

Someone was trying to break open the door.

"...Make that five seconds. GO!" Ash said.

---

Then...

Ivan had been pretty grumpy to begin with. It had been a poor week overall, what with one thing and another - Hannah fighting back, some of Godfather's more cutting remarks, and now this retaliatory strike on the invasion force. Not that Ivan cared about what happened to the limp-wristed idiots in Kou's division, but the loss of so many goods and manpower disheartened him a lot. The entire thing had been a bust, and now they were having to move shop before things really went south.

So when Valerie had delivered Godfather's orders to relocate the prisoner, it had not been a welcome appearance. He'd bit back his tongue, of course, but he honestly didn't believe she'd be fazed by any kind of retort he could have come up with. In all honesty, her stoic patience probably made his mood worse - she almost seemed to revel in his growl of annoyance as he'd picked himself up from his seat and trudged off. Why Godfather had even hired her, if not for her body, the Russian had no idea.

Still, he mused as he trudged down the corridor, it probably wouldn't be all that bad. They'd lost far fewer men than they could have done, and brought a whole load of new resources with them, which would help them get a better footing in the new location. Perhaps the Ironsides would be chosen to take the first steps, instead of the science-obsessed Atoms who took far too long to do anything. He reckoned it would be at least a month before he could get something decent coming in, by comparison, and then... Well, they would have to wait and see.

There was a strange lack of personnel in the cell blocks today. He ignored this, and continued onward to where he knew Ash's cell was. How to transport him...? Perhaps just knock him out, and then claim he'd been resisting? It would certainly bypass the part where he went mad from all the prattling, and make him a lot easier to stuff into a box to be loaded onto a van.

Yes. That would be the most efficient way.

Which is when Ivan encountered the open door. And the empty prison cell.

"...Dah, Godfather has the rats trained good. They already took the shit to face her wrath...without telling me...and leaving his chains behind...while I am unable to raise my troops that should be stationed in this wing..."

Tick tock tick tock...

"OH CHERT POBERI...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

---

"Ow, my ears."

"Yeah, careful, the portal sends out flickers of electricity." Tracy said, as the ear-singed Ironsides Magpie headed through the portal. Only a dozen left...

"Um, ma'am?" One said. "I have a question that I don't really want to ask, but I should know."

"What?"

"Is it true they put bombs in us?"

"...what?"

"A friend of a friend says that after...the last person we lost, they started putting little bombs in our food that stay in our gut, and if we go rogue...someone presses a switch and boom."

"...No. No that's nonsensical. They'd never..." Tracy said.

"Put a bunch of psychopaths in one place and you get concentrated psychopathy, as my dad liked to say." Ash said. "Well, if they can, they either can't do it through the door or they haven't judged it necessary yet..."

WHAM! WHAM!

"Then again that could disrupt the delicate wiring. Hmmm hmmm hmmm." Ash said.

"So, uh..." Hannah shifted both feet, side-eying Ash. "What happens when... I mean, after we're all through?"

"We close it. Anyone comes through before that, we punch it. Get settled. Then...I was thinking take you all to my world. Someplace far away from their entry point. Give you some resources, identification, etc etc...and you can settle down as per your desire. Plus I'll listen to ideas."

"...the idea has merit, I suppose," ventured Tracy, after a pause. There was a general murmur of agreement from the remaining Magpies.

"Keep going. We're almost there. The voice could barely be heard through the metal barrier.

WHAM! WHAM!

",,,you build good doors." Ash commented, his tone blithe.

It took some time for everyone to twig.

"Shi-" Hannah began to say.

"No." Tracy's voice was iron and authoritive. "Nobody is panicking, understand? If anybody does, we leave them behind. Now, stay calm and keep going, one at a time."

"Yeah. Go." Ash said, going into a crouch, feeling his knees pop. He didn't really feel all that good, but considering his recent ordeals, he could definitely feel worse. There were seven people left, not including him. Six.

Five.

Silence. No more banging.

"Tracy, might be time to throw caution to the wind." Ash said. He had a feeling he knew what that sound was.

"Okay! Hannah, go through with Douglas, same time! Renny, with Moe five seconds afterwards! Hurry!"

Hannah gave Ash one last look, and then ran for it. The portal wobbled as she entered with the other Ironsides.

"....They're through! Go, go!"

Moe and Renny went.

"Okay. Come on Ash..."

"No. Go ahead."

Ash stood up, cracking his neck.

"I'll be right behind you."

Ash didn't know the woman very well, but even he could have told that, from the brief look he gave her, it was the look of someone trying to keep herself from falling to pieces. And the only way to do that, to ensure everything went according to plan, was to stick with it, no matter what.

She may have doubted Ash. She knew she stood no chance against Mr. Silver.

Eventually, Ash heard the portal whine, and knew he was alone.

As if on cue, the portal shut down four seconds later. If he'd been heading for it, he probably would have been cut in half. Sometimes, you just knew. Override code. Shut portal.

Open door.

Ash didn't say anything as he came in. Behind him, the hallway was filled with Magpies. Ivan, it seemed, had been the lucky first one there with the skeleton key.

"Lucky break, little idiot," snarled Ivan, cracking his knuckles. "But your luck just ran out."

"Kind of funny, considering they ended up in Vegas I'm pretty sure."

The punch flew.

Ash juked backwards and slipped in, getting the leverage and shoving himself around Ivan, throwing him to the ground. The head stomp would have been a lot more effective if Ivan didn't wear thick armor and Ash had been wearing shoes, but Ash bet it rattled his cage and dredged up some old memories he probably didn't want to recall.

"Kinda different when your target isn't chained up or half dead, isn't it?"

"I WILL MURDER YOU!"

"You and what army?"

"THAT ON-!"

Ash dashed in as Ivan began to point out his backup, his palm slamming into Ivan's facial mask.

"That was a rhetorical question."

Fool's Gold, Part 4

There are some things no one should ever have to find out, yet do.

That their bodies are breaking down, heading exorably to an end whose route would only vary in how much pain you suffered for so long. That a loved one had died out of nowhere, due to the actions of others, intentional or accidental, or perhaps worse, just random capricious chance.

Discovering that no matter how hard you fought, someone was just bigger and stronger and that meant you did what they wanted.

Even die.

Hands around her neck. Mind afire. No more hurt.

----

("You scared, Leigh?)

Debera Chaud.

It's hard to describe what she was for me. Mentor, mother, friend, ally, maker...all my great deeds spring from her.

She deserved better. Better than me. Better than what the world gave her. She was so strong. I think, even without me, she would have found her way back...I am honored to think I had some small part of it...and sometimes horrified to think my part led to her death. The guilt has faded, but it will never go away. All I can do is balance it with the life she would have wanted me to have. What I would have given her if I could have.

I remember...

Hannah wasn't sure where her life had gone wrong.

It might have been when the Magpies first picked her up. She'd been no more than the average  homeless street tough at first, kicking and biting and stealing in order to keep herself afloat. It was only when her powers had developed, of course, that she started attracting the wrong kind of attention - people are, strangely unsympathetic when they catch you next to a boy with a cracked skull. She didn't know if it had been the fifth or sixth time in the cells when the tall man in blue had approached her, but saying "no" hadn't seemed like an option at the time. With hindsight, maybe she ought to have said so.

Trapped. The Tomb of Mysar. An ancient burial ground built into a canyon. One way in and the Raze at our heels. Outnumbered twenty, thirty to one, and that was if we counted everyone in our retinue: if we just counted soldiers, it was more like seventy to one. We'd wanted to flee by the sea, but that had been cut off to us. Foul unnatural beasts consumed any boats that entered the waters. Redsin's creations, I would find out later. We couldn't escape Mason. We couldn't outrun Mason. All we could do was make a stand, and the Tomb was the best makeshift fortress and bottleneck we could get. It would be our Helm's Deep, our Battle of Metropolis, our 300 Spartans at whatever that place was called.

No one else ever called me Leigh. My full name is Ashleigh, an error on the birth cirtificate...I always preferred Ash. Deb started using it as a note of derision, but in time it changed. It was the same way I called her Deb, when she'd insisted on 'Ma'am' for just about anyone else.

It might have been choosing to side with Ivan. Boredom had set in during her first term, when she was no more than a low-level grunt sorting the goods when the trucks rolled in. The lure of the Ironsides, of action and weapons smuggling, called to her like the sirens of myth, and she was all too eager to respond to it. But it had taken more than a few weeks for her to realise what sort of a man Ivan was - injured, self-righteous, lashing out at imagined problems that nobody was even inflicting on him. The bottom line was, she saw too much of herself in him, and that scared her.

("Terrified."

"Good. If you weren't I'd be worried you'd turned to drink or drugs. Too many of the soldiers here are, and I can't really tell them not to."

"...No. Not even now."

"Yeah, I know.")

The invading of the strange new world didn't really inflict that much on her. It wasn't even her department, anyway - it was the Atoms, not the Ironsides, who were conducting it, and in any case she had no desire to get herself ripped apart by alien monsters. She mostly kept her head down and carried on with whatever she was doing, except what she was doing occasionally involved materials from this strange new world - and a lot of heavy-duty machinery. She didn't envy the people who had to collect it.

 We had sort of a mad hope, this rumor that another army marched at the heels of the Raze, and that if we could provide a suitable distraction they could catch up and catch them in a pincer movement. But deep down, virtually all of us thought for sure we were dead. This was our last stand, our attempt to take as many as the bastards with us as we could. Including King Bastard himself, Mason Farrell. If I did anything, I would see him dead, at his ex-wife's hands. For all he'd done to her, and to others.

In retrospect...sometimes I think...by then...she could have gone without revenge. That she'd moved on past it. To the life she deserved...

Then came the prisoner. Some blond fucker who had tried to interfere, and had gotten swarmed for it. Hannah herself had no cares about it, at first, but then she soon heard he was being transferred to the Ironside detention centres owing the the need for power-dampening facilities. She'd shrugged, but privately wondered what sort of drugs Godfather had been taking. Then again, the new world had supposedly provided a new kind of just that...


("Hey Leigh...come here."

Ash was familiar with the older woman's touch; she was constantly smacking him on the head, for one reason or another. This time though, she just settled her calloused grip into the back of his head, leaning forward to touch her forehead to his. There was no romance in the gesture, Ash had never felt that sort of spark between them, but it was still shockingly intimate to him.

"Whatever happens...you've done me proud. I want you to keep doing it. Tomorrow, the next day, etc etc. Okay?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Hmmmm." Debera said, closing her eyes. Ash had always been a little unsure of how she saw him. The platonic friend version of a May/December relationship? A surrogate son? Or maybe just a reason to keep going, that the only way the world would get better was if she devoted effort to nurturing his like in whatever way she could.

"I have a vial for you. To help you sleep." Debera said, as she bumped her forehead against Ash's and then drew away. "And...another. If...things go bad.")

Then Ivan had ordered her to beat the shit out of him.

That had been fun, at first. But the more he talked, and the more unhinged Ivan got, the more frightened she became. It was obvious there were other reasons for doing this, beyond torture and beyond getting information. She should have said something, should have put up a hand and said she didn't want in on this, it was too much and too personal for her, but Ivan's glare and growling voice always intimidated her into silence.

(The words hung heavy in the air. Debera was a master of drugs and poisons. The second offer's intent was clear.

"...No. I don't want the second."

"...Good boy." Debera said. "...No. Good man. Good man...")

Good man...

And now, here she was, trapped in a cell with the very man she'd been torturing, her powers not working.

Maybe not saying no had been where things had gone wrong.

---

"You've done me proud..."

Her flailing was weakening.

"If things go bad..."

Blood had bloomed in one eye.

"You scared, Leigh?"

There was all sorts of fear. Some fears were impossible to grasp for some. Phobias. Superstitions.

Isms.

"MEN. DON'T. TREAT. WOMEN. LIKE. THAT!"

 

Pain. Hurt.

Burn it out. Turn it within. And so in the grip of madness Ash released his choking grip and turned to the wall, slamming his head into it. Again. Again. Again.

"Good man..."

At long last, a darkness that took away the pain.

Perhaps permanently.

---

Ash surged up with a gasp, his movements coming to a stop unexpectedly. He was restrained, his arms and his forehead tied down. Hannah must have re-appropiated his sheets.

"...this is probably smart." Ash said, his voice thick with sleep.

"To be honest," grumbled Hannah, "I dunno who I'm protecting. Myself from you, or you from your sudden bouts of batshit insanity. What's next, cartwheels?"

"Probably not." Ash said, going quiet as he tried to get his facilities together. "...I'm sorry."

A sharp, barking laugh. "That don't cut it, fuckface. You try to strangle me, then brain yourself on a wall. You think 'sorry' is enough to explain that?"

"No...I'm just sorry. I shouldn't have done that. And thank you. You could have killed me while I was unconscious, and didn't. You had more control than I did. You're strong."

"The boss wants you alive. That's all there is to it." The response was dull and listless, as if Hannah was... tired.

"And I'd just tried to murder you. I've seen your temper. When it mattered most...you kept control." Ash said. "...I'm sorry I failed you."

A pause.

And then Hannah shuffled around, boots scraping on the surface, until she was facing Ash. In the dim lighting, her face seemed more drawn and haggard than he remembered.

"Alright." She held out her hands. "Where's this going?"

"....It's a very long story...but we have time. In theory. Can I have some water? And...can you undo the restraint around my forehead, at least? I'm good now. No more attacking. I swear it on my mentor's legacy."

Another pause.

And then a huge sigh, as Hannah got up and walked over to the table on the far end of the room. A plastic bottle full of water sat on it - obviously brought in for just such an emergency. Picking it up, she walked back over to where Ash lay, knelt down and held out the bottle with one hand whilst untying the restraint around his head.

"Too soft," she grumbled. "That's my trouble."

"Well, might as well start at the beginning..."

And so Hannah heard a tale. A normal world. A god sealed in it. His awakening. His incomprehensible motivation to turn the world into a incomprehensible patchwork forged by a billion desires granted, twisted, and denied. Ash's old life. His new one. And his mentor, a great woman, and the horrific man she'd had to share her life with. Who'd murdered her.

"...Men don't hurt women. They DON'T. So...yes. I beat my head on the wall. To stop myself, and remind myself. Pain is weakness leaving the body."

"...I get your point, but that's fucked up. That'd be like if I broke my arm every time I drank a beer because my dad was an alcoholic."

"Well to be fair your boss did sort of sleep deprive me." Ash said. At some point, Ash forget when, Hannah had undone his other restraints.

"Touche." Hannah said. "...my powers don't work."

"I noticed."

"I... I don't get it. I thought he wanted me to beat you up some more, but... why block my powers? What good would that do?"

Ash could only look at her. Waiting for the pieces to fall into place.

"Like, he should have known that you'd go for me, after all the shit he pulled on you and all the times I broke something. So why would-?"

Realization hit her like a piano dropping on Goofy's head.

 "...son of a BITCH!"

"Maybe." Ash said, taking the sentence literally. And as if that was a siren call, the sound of the door being worked 


Ash wasn't really surprised who was there. Hannah, however, was.

And where she'd held her temper with Ash, she did not hold it here, as she lunged at him.

"You shit! You turned off my powers so he could kill me! Who even does a thing like-?!"
Ivan didn't so much stop her as he used his bulk and armor to just sort of shoulder PAST her, the current situation quite pointedly indicated. Having walked past her, he approached Ash. There was no anger on his face, or anything that would indicate violence on his mind.

Just confusion.

"...why?"

Ash just stared, bleary-eyed. Once again, he did not understand the question.

"You had the chance. The opportunity for revenge against the one who hurt you. Yet you did not take it. Why?"

"...there are...two people...in a room."

"I do not understand."

"There are two...people in a room. One has a pained tooth, and on a level...of pain marked from 1 to 10, we shall say that he is suffering pain...with a numerical value of 3. The other person has just been shot...in the leg. We will say he has a ‘pain value’ of 6. Ergo, is anybody in that room suffering from a combined ratio of 9? Do we say that both are...suffering from a pain value of 4.5?”

"...what?"

"Not clicking? Okay, try this...if you leave for your destination now...you will arrive on Thursday. You are leaving now. Therefore...you will arrive on Thursday."

Ivan merely stares.

Then he turns to Hannah.

"Clearly delusional, no? Headbutting a wall scrambled his mind more than I thought."

Hannah, however, is still pissed. "We're not leaving until you explain why you turned my powers off, asshole."

Ivan doesn't reply, at first. He just looks from one to the other.

"Ivan. Mr. Silver."

His eyes, ever masked, turned back to Ash.

"Why do YOU think I did it?"

"You think yourself some knight in shining armor, no?"

"Actually, I like to...think of myself...more as a paladin."

"...What's a paladin?"

"Why do YOU think I did what I did?" Ash repeated, not answering.

"Because you are weak. But not in way I assumed."

Ivan lowered himself down in a crouch to glare at Ash behind his mask.

"You could have taken revenge. Paid Hannah and me back for pain I caused you. But you would not take it, refusing to even score despite all the wrongs I have done. Yet you have no problem with attacking me for punishing insolent subordinates, over morals you build around yourself, like child building sandcastle. You claim to be hero, but will not do what is necessary."

"...so you turned off my powers and threw me in here," Hannah slowly chokes out, "just to prove a point?!"

Ivan ignored her, though his mask did snap back up over his face and head, so perhaps he did pay SOME attention.

"You are no better than me, little man. At least I am honest. You are hypocrite and coward."

"...Ah....ha. There it is....deep down...I am just like you. And you're right..." Ash said. "...Well...save for one thing. Do you know what a diamond is, Mr. Silver?"

"Yes."

"How is it made?"

"By exposing carbon-bearing material to high pressure and temperature. What has this to do with anything?"

"And can I punch this bastard yet?" growls Hannah. Ivan continues to ignore her.

"To get me...to even try and do...what you want to do...what you always do...you had to...subject me...to so much...pressure, hmmm? So much work to resemble you...which makes me a diamond and you a piece of coal. After all, they're both carbon, right? So we're the same, RIGHT? One doesn't have...more strength...and more value...over the other? One didn't have to be...subjected to so much...to get...something of worth, right?"

"...what are you saying?" Ivan's voice comes as a low, threatening growl that rattles behind his mask.

"Ha...ha..." Ash said, finally standing as best he could. "...My brain's a bit scrambled, so forgive me for appropriating...you think me...hypocritical...as all decent men must be, if you assume that decency can't exist. Heh."

Ash cocked his head, meeting his gaze.

"Blind you are, Mr. Silver, and blind shall ever be, seeing only the dark. You know not what rules the hearts of men, and if you knew you could not give it."

The silence that filled the room afterwards was made of iron. A whole minute of iron silence, leaving the air cold and empty with tension.

Hannah, feeling the need to break it, opened her mouth-

"RAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

-and shrieked as Mr. Silver swung a massive, unstoppable fist at Ash's head.

Blood sprayed. Teeth flew. Hannah screamed, a sound that seemed very far away.

"You think you are clever?!" Ivan said, as he both punched Ash again and drove his head into the wall. "With all this bullshit you spout?! NO! You are insolent, idiotic child! You speak nonsense and call it wisdom, you brain yourself on walls and call it heroism! You are IDIOT!"

Blows rained down. Ash fell onto the bed, only for Ivan to pick him up and throw him against the opposite wall. More blood splattered.

"I never claimed to be anything else! I am killer, criminal and much more! But I do not dress myself with idiotic codes of honour and give it a stupid name! You are like a character in a pantomine - all costume but no substance! You parrot idiotic phrases you have memorized because you have no real answers!"

Ivan's boot came down, again and again. Stomp. Crunch. Squash.

"But I have won, little man! I have worn you down and broken the costume and shown the pathetic idiot inside! You thought you could beat me with words? You were beaten long before I even began the torture! I have found what you are, and I find it wanting! I win!"

No more kicking. Because in a mirror of events gone by, his hands had closed around Ash's throat.

"YOU LOSE!"

Squeeze.

Good man...

Suddenly, Ash felt the world lurch, and Mr. Silver's grip was yanked off of him. As he lay on the floor, barely able to see, he got a good view of three other subordinates dragging the writhing, snarling Russian away from him. It took one each for the arms and another with a clutch to his midsection as though he were clinking to a charging horse - either Ivan had worn himself out with all the punching and kicking, or these guys hit the gym on a regular basis.

"LET ME GO!" roared Ivan, kicking like a spoilt child. "HE MUST-"

And then Hannah's body blocked his vision. Not his ears, though, which picked up every word that she spat out at her boss like acid.

"Two and two equals four, fuckwit. So do the math here - Important Prisoner gets killed by Psychopath in a Tin Can. How do you think Godfather is going to react when she finds her major source of info on this world is a bloody pulp? And whilst I'm at it, shall we add 'using soldiers as guinea pigs' to the long list of shit you've been pulling?"

Ivan stopped, and stared. A range of emotions flickered across his eyes behind the mask - outrage, bewilderment, exhaustion... it was hard to catch everything on there. For a horrible moment, Ash though the brutish Magpie was going to charge again.

Then he wrenched himself free of the other three soldiers and, with a last hateful glance at the prone Ash, stalked out of the room. The trio followed close behind, shadowing the bigger man with deliberate purposefulness, but Hannah didn't move until their footsteps were no longer audible.

Then she turned to Ash and knelt down, concern on her face.

"You still alive?"

Ash emitted a faint cough. Even that sent waves of pain through him.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Then the next thing Ash knew, the Geokinetic had taken a strange bottle from her pocket, along with a cotton pad, and was pouring stuff from the bottle onto the pad before daubing his wounds with it. It stung, predictably, but over time the pain started to dull into mere throbs.

"...I hate him," he finally realized Hannah was saying. "Thinks he can do whatever the fuck he wants just because he's been dicked over. And blocking my powers like that... should have shattered his nose before he even walked into the fucking room."

A bitter laugh. And then Hannah sighs, and it's full of sadness and regret.

"Things aren't the same anymore. Godfather wants to start something, and she's clearing out anyone who won't be a part of it. And I don't think I want to."

"...I'm...sorry...if I could...do...anything...it's...my...dutyyyyyyyyyyyyyy..."

And then Ash slipped away into the darkness.

---

"Is he okay, Bacta?"

"I dunno, Babel... I managed to fix him up as best as I could, but he needs to stabilize on his own."

Those are the words that come filtering in on the edge of Ash's hearing, as he slowly rises from unconsciousness.

The first thing he saw was Willis.

"Welcome back," smiled the man, although without much happiness. "We thought you'd really caught it."

"Lots of broken bones," came in Tracy's too-fast voice as she appeared from the edge of his vision. "Massive internal injury, possible hemorrhaging. Luckily, we have dedicated medical teams and healer battalions stationed at these locations. Very efficient."

"Geneva convention still stands," babbled Tracy. "Prisoners need to be kept healthy. Couldn't have you bleeding out on us, not while-"

It was obvious from the beginning that Tracy's babbling was more out of nervousness than her usual method of speech. And it became even more obvious when Willis lifted one of his hands and she quickly stammered to a stop, opting to twiddle her fingers and stare at the floor instead.

"Sorry," came an echoing voice in Ash's head. Tracy's.

"Someone might want to remind your boss of those conventions...if he cares. Which I doubt."

A small giggle from Tracy. "You sound just like Eeyore."

"Look," cut in Willis' actual voice, interrupting the silence. "Rubble told us what happened. And... well, me and Tracy, we've talked about it and... we've had enough. It's one thing when you have to smuggle, steal and defraud for a woman who doesn't even care for you, but when your boss decides she wants to rip apart time and space for the sake of profit and petty revenge..."

"It's too much," Tracy finishes, speaking aloud.

"...But no one leaves the Magpies." Ash said.

"We're going to."

Tracy's face was firm, her eyes hard. Enough, it seemed to say. I've had enough, and I'm going to let you know I've had enough until you get it.

"We're going to do it by means of a trick. And this trick has to do three things. One, it has to ensure that we get as far away from the Magpies as possible - another dimension, if that's what it takes. Two, it has to ensure that we can't be followed. Three, it has to expose Ivan's rule-breaking to Godfather. Imagine snatching away his sandwich and then kicking him in the balls, and that's what we're going to do."

Willis cast a sheepish look at Ash at this. "She's... been thinking about this a lot."

"...What do you need?"

Willis, surprisingly, was the one to speak first.

"First, somewhere to jump to," he started. "We can't just run to your dimension, because Godfather will know about it and we'll be hunted up and down without pause. So somewhere the Magpies won't expect us to go to. And because we listen in a lot, we figure that one dimension Dallas got sent to would be good - nobody's really figured out how to get back there."

"Second," added Tracy, "someone to vouch for us. From what reports we managed to dig up, that dimension is heavily protected, and it's guardians don't take kindly to people in our line of work. I don't know about you, but I like my rib bones intact, so a more diplomatic approach would be required in this instance."

"And third, a way to stop Ivan from pursuing us once we've gotten through," finished Willis.

"....You need to find the machine used to get to my world. See if you can figure out...how to get to where Dallas went. Even if you can just...send signals or probes or something...there's a girl there whose business is dimensional transfer, she'll hopefully pick something up. Once we get that...we can proceed from there."

Willis nodded. "We'll get right on that. Don't worry, we have clearance, so if we pretend we're running a maintenance check, they'll let us in no problem."

"I trained to use transmitters before I was transferred here," put in Tracy. "With any luck, I ought to get a good signal out to this friend of yours."

---

Ash wasn't sure how long had passed since then. He was healed up, he slept, he ate the nutrient paste they provided him, he pondered.

The alarms going off was a rude awakening. Standing up, he blinked a few times, then fell into a crouch.

When the door opened, the fact that Tracy was panicked was a bad sign.

"We have a problem!"

"What sort of problem?"

"Our invasion force was completely neutralized! Your world...a whole bunch of people showed up and kicked everyone's ass so hard Godfather's put the whole building on lockdown! And that's with the door closed behind them!"

The implication sunk in. The portal to his world was closed off. And from the sound of things, someone had rallied the troops. And Godfather had discovered her reach exceeded her grasp.

For someone as unstable as her, the likely consequences were not pretty.

Willis arrived, looking equally scared.

"Everything's in chaos. If we're gonna go, we need to go NOW."

"You got an entry point?"

"Yes! Somehow! It's as stable as we're going to get!"

"Guys?"

Hannah, fists of rock flecked with blood, also stepped into the room, with the man with the flashbangs whose name Ash couldn't remember. With a familar sword.

Magnificence. The blade of Debera, gifted to him. Ash expected someone else to bring in Erdrick, and when no one did, the realization that he hadn't seen his partner-weapon ever since he'd been captured sunk in. What the hell...?

Questions to answer later.

"Someone started asking questions...I had to punch them out, I couldn't think of anything else to do! We have to go, now!"

"Okay, okay..." Ash said, taking the sword and throwing the harness that held the sheath over his shoulder, looping it around and clicking it on his bare chest. No armor, pants and paper shoes, but he felt better, even though by all logic he couldn't use the weapon at all. Magnificence made one exception for its constant virulent emissions: him. And he'd have to rub his blood on the weapon a whole bunch of times to get that guarantee. If he drew it in these confined spaces, the poisons and gasses would not discriminate between friend and foe. Well, worst came to worst...he had a club.

"Okay. All right. We can do this. This sort of crap..." Ash said, stepping out of the door.

And stopping dead.

The hallway was filled with Magpies. Not Magpies come to stop him. Magpies who looked at scared as the rest, even as the alarms kept blaring.

"...the hell?"

"We want to go."

Hannah suddenly looked much younger, her eyes pleading.

"If we just run...Ivan will hurt our friends. We...we can't take it any more. Most of them, us, are with Ivan because Godfather made the assignments...we can't leave them behind."

Ash swallowed. So now instead of an escape this had become a rescue mission with several dozen scared more-or-less-kids, a time crunch, right in the heart of enemy territory with the enemy utterly furious and on the defensive because of a literally-might-have-just-happened defeat.

"You scared, Leigh?"

"Yeah." Ash said, turning to Tracy. "Lead the way."

Time to do proud.