January 23rd, 2014 Steve Rogers/Captain America “Still no sign of him,” Maria Hill said, walking back and forth through her office. Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers stood before her, both men sharing a look. They stood in the Enterprise, which Maria was still using as her main base of operations. There had been plans to repair the Triskelion and return to it, but Maria said she simply found it easier to use the Enterprise as a mobile HQ. Considering the way her work was going, she really needed to be able to work in the field. Maybe one day the Triskelion would return to its former glory, though Steve doubted it. For now, Maria stopped in the center of the room and looked between them. “The last record we have of Strucker, he was in Brazil, working from some old bases HYDRA had built during the time Nazis fled to the country after the war, but authorities and our own forces there found nothing but dead-ends.” “So either we can't find him, or he was never there at all,” Coulson concluded, crossing his arms. The agent sounded frustrated and tired as he spoke. “Looks like it,” Steve agreed. He held back the anger he felt at the thought. Strucker still had Sharon and Trip. Two of their people, in the hands of HYDRA, likely getting brainwashed and experimented upon. It was enough to give anyone nightmares. “On the plus side, other HYDRA bases have been falling apart. I have our people going over it and it looks like we have quite a few new resources. Quinjets, weapons, materials, fuel, even food we can shift to feed our soldiers.” Steve nodded at that. No matter what else had changed, wars were won by supplies as much as soldiers. It was common sense after all. “Just in case, maybe we should have Dial and Tony update the Hercules App? That might help with the search. Something to make sure that any items we pick up aren't booby-trapped would be good as well.” “Agreed,” Phil said. “In the meantime, we have another issue.” “Hank Pym is still refusing to speak with us,” Maria said simply. Steve looked between them, confused. “Hank Pym?” “A former SHIELD scientist,” Phil explained. “He stopped working with us after an incident, but he's known as one of the most intelligent people we ever had. Worked on something pretty damn secretive. I think only Agent Carter knew the full details of it. He was also the founder of Pym Technologies before he was removed by a corporate takeover.” “So why are we talking about him now?” Steve asked. Maria, in answer, waved her hand. Hologram emitters in the ceiling and floor activated, projecting a screen showing Bill Foster's lab. Steve held back a sigh at the sight of it. He hated most holograms. They never seemed to be as clear as the normal flat-screen tv's of the modern age were. Holograms Steve usually saw were fuzzy and all blue. They were also very tough to discern distance from. A few exceptions, such as the holograms Dial, Fitz, or Tony sometimes made, were much closer to reality, but the one Maria brought up was annoyingly tough to figure out. With a bit of squinting, he was able to follow along with the events of Ava's test, past the moment something went wrong and finishing when Bill asked Fitz to call Maria. “According to Bill, Ava said 'Janet' was in her mind,” Maria said with a quiet solemness. “We believe it's Janet Pym she's talking about, Hank's wife and a former SHIELD scientist. If she is somehow in the Quantum realm like Bill suspects, we need to talk to Hank Pym, but he won't speak with us.” “Let me try. I have a very persuasive personality,” Phil said with a smile. “Are you sure?” Maria asked. “I know you're still getting over... well. Everything.” Phil stilled. After a sad smile, his words came out with a deeply pained tone. “Audrey made her choice. I accept that. And in the end, Ava and Janet are the ones we need to focus on. I can take my team with me to meet with Hank, tell him about what we've found out.” Fury opened the door then, walking into the room. He no longer wore his long coat, instead wearing a blue silk shirt and white suspenders. He strode in and nodded at everyone. “You're talking about Pym?” “Yes,” Maria answered. “I'd like to suggest not telling him about Janet,” Fury said simply. Phil frowned, Steve doing the same. Phil spoke, turning slightly to face Fury. “Why? Wouldn't knowing we might have information on her help?” “What do we have?” Fury asked. “A woman who has been in constant pain since childhood, saying a name she might have overheard in the middle of a dangerous experiment with Quantum energy? Hank Pym is the sort of guy who will punch you in the face the second he hears that... come to think of it, maybe you should have May say it.” “Very funny,” Phil said, getting a smirk from Fury. Phil sighed. “All right, I'll just go ahead. We need to visit California as is, so this works out.” “Alright,” Maria said. “Then we come to your orders: Rogers, Fury.” The two old soldiers looked over at her. “As you know, we need a training facility for the superhumans we've been finding. Somewhere safe, where they can learn in peace and eventually either return to the world or begin working for us. I want you both looking at the old SHIELD bases and finding us a good location for that. Somewhere out of the way, with lots of destructible area around it for the more powerful superhumans we'll find. If it can survive Dial, Hulk, and Thor, you've found somewhere we can work with. Steve, you know the Avengers best, so find somewhere they can all use as a secondary base as well.” “Director for a short time and already giving impossible orders?” Fury asked with a slight smirk. “You really were the best choice.” Maria spared him a smile before waving for them to leave. Steve walked out with the group, thinking carefully. A training base for superhumans. One that could survive most anything, had room, was out of the way, hidden, and was comfortable. Tough combination to figure out. Tony might have some ideas about that. For some reason though, Steve felt as though the Avengers and other superhumans would need something... specific. Something was calling him to make sure the base would be... Best to keep that idea on a backburner. If it ended up being viable, he'd take it. For now, he turned to Fury. “What do you think about asking Tony about financing the base?” “I think he'll be an insufferable asshole about it. But sure,” Fury said with a sigh of annoyance. “Let's go ask Tony Stark for money.” ------ Mahmoud Schahed/Dial In the gym of the Avengers Tower, in the boxing ring set aside just for the occasion, I unleashed a series of punches at my opponent. Skye ducked around them, swinging her leg to try and sweep me off my feet, but I managed to leap over the attack. I came down with a wrestler style elbow drop, so she dodged to let me hit the mat instead. She kicked at me and I blocked the blows on my shoulder, grabbing her leg in return. With a quick spin, I heaved her up and tossed her aside. She rolled with the toss, landing and facing me when I followed up with a cross punch. Ducking, she grabbed my arm, pulled it forward while twisting to bring her back to my chest, then flipped me over. I landed hard on my back, grunting at the pain, before bringing my legs up to kick at her. It was a rough attack but one that drove her to run back, allowing me to spin to my feet and follow by punching her in the gut. She backed off. For a moment, Skye and I faced each other. Natasha, who was watching from the ropes with her arms crossed, simply eyed us. Then a loud shout brought our attention to the doors. Ruby was brought in by May, the older woman pushing the tiny teen into the gym with the same sort of dismissive attitude one would use to shove an unruly puppy off a bed. “Caught her, huh?” Natasha asked easily. “She's getting better,” May said, sounding almost reluctant. “Only realized where she was when the cardboard box moved.” “What, did she go all Metal Gear on you?” I asked, almost shocked. “It almost worked,” Ruby mumbled to herself, only scowling at the frown that comment got from May. “Hey, aren't we still fighting?” Skye asked me. “I've gotten my ass kicked by tiny badass women all day, give me five seconds,” I grumbled in response. “Aw, poor baby,” Ruby said, the petite teen grinning at the scowl I gave her. “Hey,” Natasha clapped, getting out attention. “Focus. May, can you go over where Ruby went wrong with her?” May nodded, turning to Ruby. “In the meantime, Mahmoud, you're fighting both of us now,” Natasha said, hopping into the ring. “...This because I complained, isn't it?” I asked in despair. “If you have to ask...” Natasha said in sing-song, moving in with Skye. Together, the two women started to punch me like I was filled with sand and not gooey, bruisable insides and crunchy bones. I tried my best to fight back, but even with Skye as the weak link, I was getting beat up bad. In the meantime, May spoke quietly with Ruby. For a brief moment, I could see the two talking, Ruby asking questions earnestly. Tough nut to crack, that one. She was confident, but in the way a lot of teens are. But also, she was like... well, an X-23 who actually wanted to be a killer. Raised her whole life to be the ultimate badass. If Skye was slightly above me in skill as a human, and Natasha might as well have been the sun, then Ruby was smack dab in the middle. She was also an abrasive little brat. I focused on fighting once more, my breath heavy, and sweat pouring from me as bruises covered my body. Natasha added to them with a kick to my thigh that forced me to drop to a knee. Skye followed that by punching me in the chest, sending me to my back. I rolled up and kneed Skye in the stomach. When I followed by trying to punch Natasha, she easily slid around the blow, shoved my head to the side, then wrapped an arm around my neck and twisted me around to toss me into the ground, where I crashed with a loud slap of flesh on the mat. I lay there dazed, trying to understand just how much my ass had been kicked. “Yeah, that's good enough,” Natasha walked up to me, looking down. “You getting better. That was a good flying knee. But you aren't defensive enough. I think fighting as invincible aliens so often has you used to being able to take a hit.” “Can you blame me? Diamondhead and Rath can take a tank shell without a scratch. Well, maybe a small bruise in Rath’s case, but he’d be okay with that,” I rolled up to my feet as I said that, thinking about Rath. Yeah, he tended to see pain in combat as a reason to fight harder. Because Rath was badass. “You need to remember as a human you can't survive a real beating from a skilled opponent,” Natasha said, helping me up. “Thankfully you've at least got real experience in a fight. You can't beat anyone who really knows what they're doing, but you can at least fight off street thugs easily. With some more training, you'll get better. Also, this training will make fighting in your alien forms more effective.” She turned to Skye. “You're a little further along though. I can tell you've been trained by May... and Ward.” Skye flinched at that. “Y-Yeah. He was my SO. Before he turned out to be a traitor.” Natasha nodded. “Well, they trained you well... Now, I believe you guys have an appointment?” “Right,” I struggled to my feet and walked out of the ring. “See you in the lab, Skye!” “See you there!” she said, heading to the women's locker room while I headed to the men's. ------ After a quick cleanup, I took my bruised form to Simmons in her lab. I was shirtless, to let her look over my wounds, leaving me in my jeans and boots with my Captain America t-shirt resting on the table beside me. I'd gotten into the habit of wearing merchandise based on my teammates lately. Funnily enough, I was pretty sure Tony was behind the suddenness of the others wearing variations of Omnitrix covered shirts in return since I'd seen Sam and Hartley doing it once. “I really wish you wouldn't let yourself get this hurt,” Simmons said disapprovingly, rubbing some kind of ointment on one of my biceps on top of a bruise. “I don't 'let' myself do anything,” I said, wincing at the feel of the cold ointment on my bruises. “I'm just trying to learn how to kick ass without, you know, getting my ass kicked.” “Well so far, you are doing a terrible job of that,” Simmons shook her head with a smile, before sighing when I ended up wincing. “Stand still!” “Always asking the impossible,” I grumbled, before looking around at Simmons’ lab, noting the many medical supplies and chemistry tools resting about. As a skilled 'everything to do with organic material you could think of' scientist, Simmons’ lab also had some machines for reading blood samples and other such things. “Man, I really wish I could figure this stuff out without needing to turn into an alien,” I mumbled, looking at everything. “I could always teach you?” Simmons offered cheerily. “Teach me... medicine?” I asked, blinking. “Cause I'm fairly sure that will take a while.” “No better time to learn than the present!” Simmons voice was rather cheery. “At the very least some basic first aid. I always think that's important.” “True,” I admitted. “Okay, I'd love to learn a few things. Going to have to add it to all the other stuff though...” I mumbled the last thing. Seriously, my plate was pretty full these days. Training with Natasha, coding from Skye, engineering from Tony, tactics from Steve. All for the sake of becoming a better superhero, but it was all so damn exhausting. At this point, I was probably going to end up becoming some kind of Tom Strong even out of alien form. Sounded kind of cool actually... I saw Skye enter the area then, walking over towards us. She entered Simmons’ lab and blinked at the sight of me shirtless with green ointment covering me across portions of my chest, back, and arms. “Looks like you're finally getting those abs you wanted so badly,” Skye said with a cocky smile. “Avert your eyes,” I quipped, covering myself up. “I'm a shy soul after all.” “I wouldn't call a guy who destroys castles 'shy',” she mumbled. “All done!” Simmons closed the lid on the ointment she'd been putting on me, then turned to Skye. “Okay, I have the lab tests for you, Skye. They're... well, I'm not sure.” “That doesn't sound good,” Skye noted. I had to agree. We were here to talk about the oddity in Skye's DNA, to get some answers. I was still tempted to say Skye might be some sort of unknowing superhuman, but I'd rather figure out the truth as opposed to guessing it. “It isn't bad!” Simmons said back, walking over to a computer. I hopped off my seat and walked over with Skye. “It's just confusing. See, at first, we believed that the GH.325 was the cause in some way. So I took an earlier sample I had from before that and studied it but...” she showed us two readings of DNA side by side, a dumbed-down version at least, one the screen. “It's not that. The GH.325 just healed you, nothing else. As far as we can tell, this has always been in your DNA.” “But what is it?” Skye asked, sounding worried, with good reason. I stroked my chin, thinking. “Well... Skye? What's your name? Like, your real name?” Skye looked at me for a moment, her eyes filled with... something. Something old, a pain I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand. Not in this life. “I don't know. The name the orphanage gave me was 'Mary Sue Poots',” she said. I coughed, trying not to show my thoughts on that. But still... Mary Sue? Damn, that is just a name with all sort of connotations. She apparently took my sudden intense stare as me being bewildered. “Yeah, I know. It's a dumb name. I've been calling myself Skye just to keep from calling myself that. Why do you ask, anyway?” I stared a moment longer, confirming that she wasn't some uber-perfect self-insert character but rather a normal, if very attractive, woman. Once I figured I could just check later if I was a character being mind controlled accidentally(only slightly joking), I focused on the topic at hand. “Well, I figured if we could find out... who you were, maybe find your parents, that might be a clue to whatever this is.” “You think this may be something she inherited?” Simmons asked. “Worth a shot,” I lied. In truth, I was banking on the idea that finding Skye's real name would help me use my meta-knowledge to know more. If she turned out to actually be named Cindy Moon, Laura, or something along those lines, I'd have an immediate answer. If not, it was at least helpful. Besides, while my knowledge was useful, it wasn’t perfect, as the Grapplers being more morally grey and the Maximoff twins not running around with their dad had proven, among other things. “I'm not so sure that will work,” Skye said hesitantly. “If I have parents, well... they're probably dead.” “Then let's find out,” I looked around the room. “Give me a few minutes, and enough machinery, and I can probably figure something out. It'll be a bit Jury Rigged though.” I said the last part with a smug grin. Skye and Simmons groaned in annoyance at the pun. I let that go to think further. “I'll have to wait for approval from BRIDGE's tech guys though...” A consequence of technically working for BRIDGE was that I now had to follow rules and regulations. Not a terrible thing. But part of that was that my Jury Rigg tech was now something I needed to have approved, and with good reason. Jury Rigg was a genius, but he was a mad genius. Half the stuff he made had ridiculous booby traps for no reason other than to have them. And they were often bordering on cartoon physics in craziness. I'd seen some reports of HYDRA soldiers found with polka-dot skin and genitals that weren't their own. Products of bouncing off of Jury Rigg's Anti-Teleport device from when HYDRA had been teleporting their soldiers into the SHIELD science academy. It was wearing off but between that and the Claytronics Nanoforge randomly changing the hair color of anyone who stayed near it too long, BRIDGE now wanted to make sure they had some handle on what exactly the tiny red gremlin was making before they ended up with new body parts. It was understandable but still annoying, I could not unlock Grey Matter soon enough. “But... maybe there's another option?” Skye asked. When I looked up at her she explained further. “Well, I've been trying to do it on my own, find my parents by hacking old systems and tracking down information. But with the help of that armor you gave me, Jarvis, and X, I might find them.” “Any idea where to start?” I asked, thinking as quickly as I could. “China,” Skye said. “One of the villages. Give me some time and I'll be able to find my parents. Or... whatever is left of them.” “In the meantime, I'll keep doing my research,” Simmons said, her accent on the word 'research' making me smile just a bit. “I've found a few of our own personnel with the same... quirk, as Skye's, so I can try and find out if there is something more to it.” “And I'll send in my idea to BRIDGE and get it approved,” I clapped my hands. “In the meantime, I'm going to need the nanoforge.” ------ I typed at the computer connected to the nanoforge in Tony's lab, trying to get my specifications right. While I had faith in my current armor, I wanted something more... sneaky, for my night out with Daredevil. As I worked, Tony was behind me, working on the arm gauntlet of a new piece of armor. Making armor in the nanoforge was weird for me. Not surprising considering the fact that while making it, I'd been in Jury Rigg form or Upgrade form, with Fitz and Tony working alongside me. So while I was technically two of the four to make it, I was still a normal guy. Ask me about the Dresden Files or Mass Effect, hell, ask me about the Marvel Universe, and I probably had more information on those than you could believe, with only a few holes in that knowledge. But working on the nanoforge, as easy as the interface was to use, was more akin to a computer developer from the Eighties suddenly given a supercomputer from the modern age. Sure, I had some idea of what I was doing, but it was clear that I was barely touching the surface of what could really be done with the nanoforge. I looked over at Tony when he growled under his breath. “You alright?” “Not really,” he put the arm gauntlet down and looked over at me. “Can I borrow Upgrade?” “Hmm?” “By that, I mean, can you do that creepy thing where you mix your body with tech?” he asked. “You could put it in a less weird and insulting sounding way,” I grumbled, turning from the nanoforge to start flipping through my Omnitrix menu. “I could, but I won’t. Don't get me wrong, it's cool as hell,” Tony said, ignoring the bright green flash of light that came with my transformation. “And combining with you to fight against Blackout was like wearing my armor for the first time again. But it's also kind of gross if you think too hard about it.” “Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled in Upgrade form, moving to stand above him. “So, what do you want me to do?” “...Okay, let me break this down,” Tony turned and raised a hand, a holoscreen popping up. A good one, not the weird fuzzy one's BRIDGE was still using. A schematic of four armors showed up. The War Machine armor, the BRIDGE Catom Heavy Armor, the Darkforce Armor, and the new Hulkbuster armor. “I've been working on nanite tech for a while. Some of the issues with that are pretty obvious, like getting the machines to work together in tandem, an AI that can work with the tech, all kinds of stuff,” Tony said matter of factly. “How about you write me a booklet on this stuff for later?” I grumbled. “Sure, as soon as you finish your homework by Tuesday,” Tony snarked. He grinned a bit when I grumbled again. “What, you don't like it? You were the one who said you wanted to learn about this stuff.” “Doesn't mean I have the head for this.” Tony smirked. “You're better than you think. Just keep it up, and stop being so mopey. Anyway, before you so rudely interrupted me,” Tony gave me a mock glare before continuing. “Okay, so, nanite armor has been kind of a far-off idea for a bit. I probably could have made it work in a bit, maybe... six years from now? 2019, at the least, unless I'm underestimating myself. Which, I often am. Can't help but surprise myself with my own brilliance.” “Tony...” I said, giving him my best Upgrade smile, which was mostly twisting my 'eye' into a happy shape if that made sense. “Come on, man.” “Right,” Tony tapped the holo-screen. “So, nanite armor. It was kind of a pipe dream. Until now,” he gestured at the screen. “Upgrade has combined with two suits and a helicarrier, and blatantly ignored any laws of conservation of mass. I mean you weigh what, three hundred pounds like that? How does that much material manage to spread across a giant ass ship like that?” He tapped at the screen, showing the catom armor and Hulkbuster. “Thankfully, I have a few answers, thanks to the catom. If I can study Upgrade's makeup further, I think I can make armor similar to him.” Tony thought that. I knew he could, considering the Symbiote suit and the Model Prime suit, both of them somewhat close to what Upgrade could do, if not as insane. Tony Stark in armor built by a combination of his genius and the Omnitrix tech aliens... “Okay,” I crossed my large black and white arms. “What do you need me to do?” “First, I want to get some real scans of you combining with my suits,” Tony said rubbing his chin. “With enough scans, we can find something out about how you do your thing.” I looked over at the clock. I had a few hours. “Okay, sure. But help me with my thing after, okay?” “Sure thing,” Tony reached for a table and grabbed a rubber glove, turning around to put it on with a snap and grin. “Now, bend over and cough.” I narrowed my eye. “I swear, I will laser you right now.” “Sheesh, who killed your sense of humor?” Tony brushed a hand in the air, dismissing the holoscreen floating before him. “Jarvis, start it up.” “Of course, sir,” Jarvis said, several scanning machines activating around me as Tony watched a suit rise up from a hole that opened in the floor. Without prompting, I flowed to meld with the suit, and the scans began to run across me. For a few minutes, Tony and Jarvis scanned me as I moved around in his armor. Which was weird, being an empty suit shaped like a person in some way. Moving empty arms and legs was freaky. Once done with that, he had me use some of Upgrade’s abilities to improve and change things: making extra weapons, new arms, separating and combining with the suit, connecting online to speak with Jarvis and X directly, etc. Once done with all that, Tony seemed really excited. He was at his computer when I timed out, manipulating a hologram and desperately typing out mathematical equations as I walked over. When I came up to him, he grinned, a manic light in his eyes. “Fanboy, do you realize how crazy advanced Upgrade is?” he asked, bringing up a model of the catom armor blueprints before tossing pieces from it into a holographic trash can that appeared. He also walked over to the nanoforge and typed at it before dismissing the screen. “By the way, I finished your new armor.” “Kind of,” I asked, staring as he began to work faster and the nanoforge began to work. “Dude, that was like, five seconds of typing!” “I’m just that good,” Tony smirked at me, then looked back at the holograms he was summoning and dismissing with quick waves of his hands. “If I can make a suit even close to the kind of tech in Upgrade, I won’t have to make another one ever again… which is kind of disappointing, but I guess I’ll take up gardening or something. Cross that bridge when I get to it,” he said. As if Tony Stark wouldn’t just keep somehow upgrading anyways. He’d probably find a way to upgrade reality popping technology if given a chance. Didn’t he make a suit that could kill Galactus in a video game or something…? While I pondered this Tony kept working, “Jarvis, bring up the scans from when he made that shoulder cannon.” “Of course, sir,” Jarvis sounded… fascinated. Which made sense I guess. This universe was crazy, but as far as I could tell it hadn’t gotten to the insane levels of the Earth-616 universe. Which meant Tony was getting a hell of a jumpstart to his understanding of technology. Thank you Azmuth. “Sir, I must remind you that Mrs. Potts expects you at the fundraiser tonight,” Jarvis said calmly. “It will take some time to compile all the data we have collected, I suggest you get ready.” Looking at the clock, I realized we’d taken longer than I’d thought. It was almost time for me to meet Matt. I walked up to the nanoforge and pressed a button to bring out my newly modified armor, which came out in a new form. Tony blinked, looking torn for a moment. I rubbed the back of my neck, looking at all the holograms now floating around, dozens of notes written next to each one. “Wish I could understand what these mean. I mean, I’m not dumb, but you make me feel like I’m walking through life drunk, stoned, and sleep deprived,” I admitted. “Careful Fanboy, your lack of self-esteem is showing,” Tony said with a snort. “Besides, this is all just me rambling,” Tony waved at the holograms around us. “I mean, yeah, I’m crazy smart, but Upgrade’s tech is way above what I can currently make. I’ll figure it out, sure. But it’s still impressive.” I had to admire that about Tony. He knew he was smart, but he always gave other geniuses their due. Sure, he was still snarky about it, but I never saw him be dismissive towards Fitz or Bruce’s suggestions. He was arrogant, with good reason, but also saw the value in the smarts of others. Not many people saw that, and I felt privileged to see that side of him. “Anyway, Jarvis is right. I should let the data get all nice and sorted while I go party,” Tony clapped his hands, then put an arm around my shoulder to lead me out. “Sure you don’t want to come?” “I got patrol,” I admitted. “Huh. I don’t know if I envy you or feel sorry for you. I mean, on the one hand, you’re going out to fight bad guys while I have to convince tight-fisted millionaires to pay for schools to get funding. On the other hand, at least I get to drink with a beautiful woman on my arm.” Hard to argue with that. Tony stopped us at the elevator and turned me around. “Okay kid, if this is what you want. But remember, you’ve got that press release day after tomorrow and the merchandise the bean counters want you to approve. So get some sleep in, got it.” “What are you, my dad?” “Come back before the sun is up or you’re grounded, young man,” Tony grinned, then stopped. “Oh god, what have I become?” he sounded almost haunted. “I’m too young for that joke to be a thing!” “You’re like 40, right?” “Ha! 44 actually!” he said proudly. “Still old.” “Would you just...,” he pushed me good-naturedly into the elevator as it opened, scowling at me as I grinned. “Go beat up some bad guys you little brat.” I laughed as the door closed on Tony’s face. ------ That night, in the darkness of New York City, I stood on top of a rooftop in Hell's Kitchen, waiting silently. After getting scanned by Tony, I had a few other things to do. He apparently had a fundraiser that day, so we ended up separating earlier than I thought, but he'd managed to help me make my new suit. Well, it was really just an armored chestplate and helmet, both hidden in the form of a black t-shirt and hat. They were a bit heavy, but it worked. I work a dark long-sleeved coat that stopped at my thighs and some shoes I could run in. Perfect for night patrols. I looked out over the city. Man. When I was younger, I used to dream about being in New York. The city has a real hold on pop culture after all. Kinda interesting, the places life takes you. On the dot, Daredevil appeared from the shadows. He'd apparently read the manual because the entire suit was now a different color. It matched with the color of the night sky above, not quite black, but enough to blend into the shadows with ease. Only his eyes were still red. “Isn't it tough for you to figure out colors?” I asked him curiously as he walked towards me. “The manual was very comprehensive,” Matt said simply. “ How are you, Dial?” “I'm good, Daredevil,” I tapped my long-sleeved shirt on the spot where my heart would be. Catoms shifted, and soon my chest was covered in dark colored plates of armor. My hat 'flowed' down my head to become a thin helmet with a segmented look matching my armor. The Omnitrix symbol rested on my chest, though it was only in matte paint and very dark green against the black background. My pistol rested on my hip. Daredevil gestured to it. “What is that? I can't smell gunpowder coming from it, but it smells like the same metal they make guns from.” “BCW pistol, the new standard issue of BRIDGE, including ICER rounds to knock people out without killing them,” I told him. “Although this one was made special for me,” With that said, I raised my hand and grabbed my Omnitrix, twisting to bring up the menu. Time to use a critically underutilized alien. I pressed down on the dial. In a moment, I began to change. My skin went from flesh to paper in texture. My organs were gone, leaving only a husk filled with strange energy. I flexed my bandage-like body. “SNARE-OH!” “Why even put the armor on if you were just going to change into an alien?” Daredevil asked me, sounding amused. “My new armor is automatic,” I explained, shifting to look at him. “If I timeout early, it will be active already, no need to turn it on. So I'll have protection no matter what.” Something that had been an issue with the last model. Seemed like making catom armor work with the Omnitrix was tricky. But this new one was made just for that purpose, to be used in conjunction with the alien watch. Maybe one day I'd take it further, but for now... “Where should we start?” I asked in my ghoulish voice. Daredevil was silent for a moment. He shook his head abruptly. “Sorry, it’s just… I know you can turn into aliens, but I don’t think I understood what that really meant until now. You feel… strange, to me.” “Strange?” I asked, now curious. Snare-Oh was a weird alien after all, even compared to the others. What would he feel like to someone with the enhanced senses of Daredevil? “Like you’re flesh surrounding energy,” Daredevil’s mouth, the only exposed part of him, was twisted in an unusual grimace. “I’ll get over it. Anyway…” Daredevil walked over to the edge of the roof and pointed into the distance. “The docks. I heard something about 'cargo' being smuggled,” he took the billy clubs on his hips and pressed a button on one of them. It flew out and hooked to a water tower. He looked over at me. “Can you catch up?” “You tell me,” I said smugly. Swinging an arm out, one of my bandages stretched out and grabbed another tower. “Let's go.” With that, we swung into the night.