I couldn’t help but feel bad for Coulson as the man leaned back in his chair and dragged both hands down his face.
Honestly, with the amount of bombshells I had just dropped on him, it was a pretty tame reaction.
“...I see.” Coulson massaged his brow. “I thought I’d prepared myself for anything…” He gave a dry little laugh. “Thank you for the information. Unfortunately, this is a bit above even my authority. Is it all right if I step out and make a call to the Director?”
“Sure.” I waved a hand. “Just let him know you’ll probably have to make some concessions to both of them if you want their help.”
Coulson gave me a terse nod as he got up from his chair and left the balcony.
Poor guy. I imagined the next few days were going to be stressful as hell for him.
“Was that smart?” Anna leaned on the table as she looked at me. “Your whole timeline business is gonna get even more distorted if they start working together.”
“The butterfly effect has already messed everything up.” I shrugged. “No point in trying to preserve the timeline, so we might as well flip the board. Plus… the original timeline wasn’t that great either.”
“Still can’t believe half the people just disappear in a snap…” Anna shuddered. “That’s like something straight out of those horror movies.”
“Hopefully, we’ll never reach that point.”
SHIELD’s future collapse alone would cause more than enough headaches. The less said about the plethora of other villainous and cosmic bullshit waiting over the next few years, the better.
So much of it could have been stopped or avoided. So many little disasters could be solved with just a hint of cooperation or communication.
Hopefully, a few words here and there would plant the seeds needed for that.
I’d feel a lot better dealing with Thanos with the world at my back.
“Damn, what’d you do to poor old Phil?” Tony whistled as he strode out onto the balcony. “Looked like he’d seen a ghost.”
“Told him all about the ghost’s secrets.” I snorted.
“Ha! That’ll do it.” Tony pulled out a dossier and tossed it over. “Payment, as promised.”
I caught the stapled dossier and couldn’t help but whistle. It was a thick packet, and when I flipped through the pages, it wasn’t sparse either.
“You found all this already?” I asked, genuinely impressed. Technology wasn’t quite as privacy-violating on this Earth yet, at least as far as I could tell. Social media hadn’t exploded as much, and the internet wasn’t the titan it would become.Which made this a pleasant surprise.
“Damn right.” Tony scoffed. “Who do you think I am?”
“Yes, yes, you’re the best.” I rolled my eyes as I started reading through the dossier.
Tony said something snarky, and Anna bantered back, but I ignored them as I got lost in the pages. I’d been worried this weird mashup of continuities might have accelerated some tragedies, but for once, it seemed like things had landed on the lucky side.
Luke Cage and Matt Murdock were both seemingly doing mundane things. Luke hadn’t been falsely arrested yet, and Matt was still working on his law degree at Columbia.
Danny Rand was nowhere to be seen beyond an obituary, and Frank Castle was still on tour, though his family seemed fine.
Jessica Jones, the one I was most worried about, was apparently bumming around with some boyfriend. Thankfully, just the normal kind, not the villainous kind.
“So, you gonna tell me what you want with these folks?” Tony leaned over the table. “Cause if you want me to start ripping social security numbers, I’m gonna need some good reasons.”
“For some of them? Give them a heads-up. Hopefully, they can prevent their own Ten Rings abduction.” I paused, turning the page as I found what I wanted.
Tony scowled at the mention of his abduction. “And the rest?”
“Some bastards need punishing.”
I glared at the page as Zebediah Kilgrave’s face stared back at me.—We left Stark Tower with a lot less fanfare than our little entry, thankfully. After getting an agreement from Fury, I passed Xavier and T’Challa’s contact information over to Coulson.
The man just gave me a brief thanks, passed along his card, and left in a hurry. No doubt he was going to be extra busy with everything I had foisted onto him.
I could only hope they’d be able to work something out.
“So who’s the guy we’re going after?” Anna kicked her legs in the back of the fancy van Tony had lent us.
“Kilgrave,” I answered as I continued reading his profile. “A monster through and through. He can mind-control people through some weird virus that comes out of his body.”
“Yuck.”
“Yeah, it’s freaking nasty.”
“Are we gonna have to fight loads of mind-controlled people?”
“Hopefully not.” I frowned. “Kilgrave is a bit of an idiot. On top of that, his power has a couple of hard limits. They need to be within range of the virus; he needs to command them verbally, and it has a time limit as well. He never really did anything like keeping guards.”
“Do you know how far the range is?” Anna asked. “He might use innocent people as hostages, then.”
“I don’t remember the exact limit.” I drummed my finger against the dossier. “But we can ambush him in his hotel room. I can end him in an instant.”
Anna nodded. “Are we going back to Kamar-Taj after this?”
“I’m not sure, actually…”
Most of the heroes of New York were just living their lives right now, while Tony’s dossier only really pointed out Kilgrave being active among the villains I asked about. Most of the heroes would be fine for now, so I’d leave them be until I could figure out a subtle way to warn them. Wouldn’t want them to get hit in the crossfire of my own stuff.
Plus, staying at the center of Hydra's influence to sightsee didn’t sound like the best idea.
The van slowed as it pulled into a parking spot. A moment later, the driver spoke through the divider in the front.
“We’ve arrived at the Marriott.”
I snapped the dossier shut and shoved it into my bag of holding. “We’ll figure it out later.” I shook my head. “First, let’s put this bastard in the ground.”
I held out a hand to Anna as we stepped out of the van and walked into the five-star hotel.
Kilgrave certainly never bothered holding himself back, it seemed.
The lobby was all polished marble floors, warm golden lights, and chandeliers that probably cost more than my old apartment. Soft music drifted through the air while staff in crisp uniforms moved around with practiced smiles, the whole place practically screaming money.
“Wow,” Anna whispered. “Uhhh, how are we gonna sneak in?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Sneak in?”
Then I pulled out the card.
“We’re rich, baby.”
Anna’s eyes sparkled as I flashed the black card Tony had given me.
We headed over to the receptionist, and although the staff gave us a few odd looks, the card seemed to shut them up pretty quickly. A few minutes later, we had booked a suite just under Kilgrave’s.
The hotel room was posh, huge, and way too much. There was a king-sized bed, a sitting area, a minibar, a marble bathroom, and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city I thought it was kinda overkill.But Anna gushed over it the moment we walked in.
I laughed despite myself, then waved for her to focus as I opened one of the windows and eyed the floor above us.
“Again?” Anna asked.
“It’ll be quick this time.” I held out my hand to her.Anna groaned as she reluctantly grabbed my waist.
I slotted in Spatial Displacement, took a breath, and teleported up to the ledge above us. For half a second, the wind slapped against my face as I steadied myself against the building.
Then I spotted an open window.
One more teleport took me through it.
Easy as that.
We landed in an empty bedroom.
I perked my ears, trying to catch even the smallest sound, but the room was silent. Slowly, I opened the door leading into the rest of the suite.
Empty.
Damn. Unlucky timing, then.
Kilgrave’s suite was pretty similar to ours, save for the giant mess. Food, empty bottles, and drugs were scattered around haphazardly, left sitting wherever he had apparently gotten bored with them.
“Bleh.” Anna pinched her nose.
I had to agree. The man lived as disgustingly as he acted.
Anna tiptoed around the mess as she moved farther into the room, then opened one of the doors. “Do we really gotta wait—”
A blade shot out of the closet.
My lightsaber was faster.
I ignited it in a blur, bisected the sword, and yanked Anna back before the broken weapon could reach her. A sharp tingle ran down my spine a second later as instinct screamed about projectiles coming at my back.
I grabbed Anna and teleported across the room. A heartbeat later, I could only stare at our assailants in disbelief.
Figures in red ninja garb stared back at us, seemingly just as surprised.What the fuck were the Hand doing here?