[WS] No More Fight In Me [Solo/Invite]

She thought she had seen it all. When you live a life as dangerous as her’s, see the things that she’s seen, you pretty much think that is it. There is no way the world can surprise you. When you’ve seen the depths of depravity that man will fall to, the amount of greed and sickness that are willingly allowed to run rampant, you can’t blame Combatant for being a bit cynical. As a matter of fact, it should be par for the course living in this world. That was why she decided to join the X-Men back in her world -- they were the idealist that both needed a hefty dose of reality, and gave her a small spark of necessary hope. Sadly, “hope” was something that she was woefully in short supply of.

Unofficially, she had left the X-Men. When you beat to death the number of government employees that she has, there really is little reason to stick around. SUPER would be coming after her in full force and she couldn’t risk her presence at the hospital. The X-Men, the family she never thought she would accept, didn’t deserve that to happen to them. So, without a word, she left. She hopped into another dimension and would spend her life in exile. There were worse fates. Usually that was just a saying, a way to make one feel better, but as she would come to learn, it was in fact, very true.

Combatant had been living in solitude, trying to carve out a life for herself. She focused intently on being a vigilante, fighting the good fight but keeping to smaller matters that wouldn’t draw too much attention. However, in her attempt to stay out of trouble, trouble inevitably found her. SUPER was here. But they weren’t after her, specifically, they were looking to set roots in this universe and that was something she wasn’t going to abide by. Like any warrior, she needed to learn more about her enemy before she could strike.

This would be the opportunity of a lifetime. Unlike in her home world, she could actually keep tabs on the growing organization, to learn how they form, to gather intel on their inner workings from people who were yet to be zealot followers or strong-armed victims. Really she wouldn’t get a better chance about learning from her enemy. Maybe she could even use it to help bring them down in her own world and actually go back home.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she had found.

It was just rumors at first, the ramblings of a janitor whom she had coerced with money to get her some intel. She doubted it were true. SUPER wouldn’t have that kind of technology yet -- or rather, they shouldn’t. More reports came in: email chains, inventory lists for components to make “birthing pods”, and documents concerning the disposal of “failed attempts”. She didn’t want to believe it, but when an address for a certain facility came up, she had to investigate it personal.

Horror. That was the only way to describe it. When Agnes broke in, silent as a shadow, she watched with revulsion as this organization “disposed” of the failed experiments. People (and she used that term loosely) screaming in muffled, incoherent agony and twitching body horrors with no means of voicing their pain other than the painful twitch and arch of the remaining flesh and bursting nerve endings. Where once they only knew pain, they were blessed reaped of that horror and the remains disposed of in such a way as to leave no evidence.

It was horror personified. And it needed to be stopped.

Some would call it a suicide run. Combatant certainly called it that. Did she really think she was going to die? Maybe not. She had gotten into tougher scrapes before and considering how hard she fought and how much she sacrificed to ensure that she always walked out of a fight, there was a small part of her that looked at the impossibility and saw that .01% that said she would survive. That was what she held onto when she put together her disguise, bribed the right people, and boldly walked into this universe’s SUPER facility.

Moving through the similar halls and deeper into enemy territory, Agnes kept a confident look upon her features as she moved. She didn’t give away that she didn’t belong here and despite how much she wanted to beat all these people into a pulp for toying with nature, she kept herself calm. Getting herself killed right now wasn’t going to be beneficial to the mission.

Eventually she managed to make her way into the main facility and Combatant was simply astonished. The technology that was here, the group of scientists, none of it seemed like it was possible however it was almost as if SUPER was advancing to levels that they hadn’t even reached yet on the other side. If that was the case then she certainly needed to get moving. So, finding a quiet spot, managing to blend in, Agnes began started her task. It was a simple, a USB that was loaded with a virus written for her by a freelance hacker. Once plugged in, the USB would start copying all the data that it could find. Agnes had half expected the worse to happen but given that this was a new facility, it seemed as if things would go off without a hitch. When the USB flared green and she unplugged it, she turned and made her way out -- little suspecting she had been watched the whole time.

****

THREE HOURS LATER
Agnes sighed. She was dressed simply in jeans and a white tank top in her cheap, by the week, motel room. In front of her was a laptop and she was staring at herself looking at the camera. A half eaten burger sitting on a plate next to her, she struggled as she tried to find the right words. When she finally did, she pulled her hair back and tapped the “record” button and then raised her eyes to camera.

”Hey b****. Guess you’d never thought you’d see me again. Truth is, I wasn’t planning on contacting you at all -- but this is serious. I know you have a lot going on. Heard Mirage finally managed to knock you up. Congratulations. But you need to focus. Listen...SUPER is up to something in this world, the other world. You have to do something about it. It’s too big for me to handle and if you’d seen the things that I have...I...I can’t even tell you. Just...look at the stuff on this drive. Take it to who you have to or just blow the damn thing up yourself. But I’m afraid this is something you’ll have to handle on your own this time. I thought I was smart but...evidently…”

The flare of a red laser point swept across her screen. Reaction was the only thing that saved her. Snatching the usb from her computer, Combatant dived out of the way just in time to listen to the computer screen shatter against the force of a passing sniper bullet. She cursed under her breath, blindly reaching up until she found the envelope that had been sitting nearby, now showered with glass and plastic. Pulling it down, she stuffed the USB into the envelope, into her back pocket and counted down in her head. It was time to move.

Grabbing something shiny from the ground, a broken piece of glass, Combatant hurled it into the air, past her window. She aimed it towards her bathroom while and was greeted with several more shots that went off, aiming for the glinting light, mistaken for a fleeing body. Hopping onto her own two feet, Agnes bolted towards her door, envelope tucked into her pocket and shoving something else in her hand. She ran hard, bursting through her door and out into the hallway.

Combatant coiled, moaning in pain at the impact but chided herself to keep moving. She rotated her sore shoulder, leaping down steps until she got to the bottom. She was about to head towards the front when she spied a pair of bodies moving towards it from the outside. Their looks were haunting, monstrous, so she turned on her heel and ran towards the back office. She charged through, ignoring the sounds of shouts from the owner and his wife until she found a back window to slip out of. There she made her way around to the alley where her motorcycle was waiting.

Seconds later a burst of speed tore through the night as Agnes roared out of the alleyway, making a sharp turn on the street and heading off. She needed to get out, to get as far away as she could, hopefully her nimble bike would be lost in the sea of vehicles -- but she wouldn’t be that lucky. Two large, black, SUV’s roared to her flanks. Agnes cursed under her breath, weaving between them as best she could. In the distance she could see the bridge that would lead her out of the city but she was running out of time -- and road.

There was a harsh slap to her back wheel and Agnes grunted, feeling it vibrate throughout her body. Shakily she wavered in the road until there was no choice. Taking a sharp turn, she tried to lose herself in a crowd of cars before her eyes spotted what she was after this whole time. To do what she needed would probably be the most dangerous thing she could do -- she turned off the lights of her bike.

She vanished into darkness, her pursuers lost and unsure of where she went, so much so that they didn’t even hear the clang of a mail box lid. Another roar cut through the night and Agnes’ silhouette cut across their headlights, the one-fingered salute she gave them spurring her on further. She made her way around, heading back for the bridge. It was the only wa--

RIP!

Agnes grunted, feeling her bike suddenly stopped as if grabbed by some unknown force. Flipping off her bike, Agnes ground her teeth, curled in, and rolled once she made contact. Her arms and shoulders scraped, she did her best to ignore the pain but there was only so much the human body could ignore. A few seconds passed, more than she would have liked before she pulled herself onto her feet, her field of vision illuminated by the cones of several headlights, all pointed at her like piercing gaze of several suns. Shakily she moved onto her feet, gulping as several silhouettes stepped in front of the headlights.

She blinked, her fists raising slowly. One arm she could barely move as it had clearly taken the brunt of her fall. Still, she looked like a ferocious, cornered beast, slowly backing away.

“Stop running, dear…” a sweet, snake-like voice whispered. “...You’ve got nowhere to go. I believe you have something that belongs to us.”

Agnes breathed heavily, still backing away until she felt the poke of the bridge’s railing behind her. She was tired, body broken, and squaring off against the one thing she didn’t want to fight. ”Don’t you realize what you are?” she growled. ”Don’t you know you’re being used? You’re people! Not weapons!”

A soft ’Hem, Hem’ replied. “Pobresita... you’re confused,” she continued. “We’re going to save the world...from the likes of you. Stop being foolish. Someone of your…talents...can be useful. We can talk. Now, hand it over. ”

A sigh. Agnes shook her head. She stepped back, wincing as she climbed the railing of the bridge. Weakly she pulled something from a pocket, a USB, similar to the one she used to collect the data. ”You mean this?” She continued to move back, swinging one leg over the railing, keeping the USB hanging over the edge.

The demoness voice continued. “You drop it and you have no more leverage, mija. Don’t be stupid, we’ll just fish it out.”

Agnes smirked. ”Maybe,” she sighed. ”But good luck fishing me out.”

For the first time in a long time, Agnes simply...let go. Feeling the air whip around her head and the sound of the encroaching water, she didn’t feel any fear as the bridge grew smaller and smaller and smaller. Even as she watched metal rain down towards her and any other attempts of theirs to catch her on time, it was too late. Agnes released the USB (a fake) and closed her eyes allowing herself to sink into darkness until the inevitability came of her body smashing against the cold water below.

She didn’t hear the snap, or the feel the life ebbing out of her body as the current carried her away. She was happy to stop fighting, for once.