Chapter 12: The Ghost and the Gadgeteer
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of caffeine and code. Skye had managed to grab Jason's hard drive before he disappeared, and she was going through it with a fine-tooth comb. The rest of us were just... waiting. And training. And arguing about food.
"I'm just saying," Luis was saying, pacing around my apartment with his hands in his pockets, "a chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito. It's an American invention. It's not a real burrito. It's like a burrito's rebellious teenager phase."
"And your point is?" Frank grunted, doing one-handed push-ups in a corner. He didn't seem to be breaking a sweat.
"The point is, we gotta respect the classics, man! A burrito is a beautiful, elegant thing. A chimichanga is a beautiful, elegant thing that was dropped in a fryer. It's a different beast entirely. It's a tragedy and a triumph all at once. And that's what this Jason guy is. A beautiful, tragic, deep-fried burrito of a villain."
"I swear, one of these days, I'm going to make a flow chart for Luis's metaphors. It's the only way to keep up. I'll call it the 'Luis Logic Labyrinth.' It'll be a bestseller."
I was trying to ignore the culinary debate and focus on the small, glowing device on my desk. It was the mission reward. The Tech-Warp Gu. It looked like a tiny, humming sphere of pure, crackling energy. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once. The system message had been annoyingly vague, as usual.
[New Gu: Tech-Warp Gu (Rank 1). Ability: Temporarily disrupt and phase through electronic devices. Requirements: A user with a strong connection to technology and a volatile, unstable essence.]
"A volatile, unstable essence," I murmured to myself. "That's not vague at all. Is that even a medical term? I think that's a description of my dating history."
Suddenly, Skye called out from her computer station. "Adam, I got something. This Jason guy... he wasn't just stealing tech. He was building something. A power source. He calls it the 'Quantum-Flux Capacitor.'" She rolled her eyes. "He's not very original with names."
"Yeah, he sounds like he got his villainous name from a random generator," I agreed. "Quantum-Flux? Why not just call it the 'Super-Duper Boom Device' and get it over with?"
"He's trying to make a more stable, smaller version of the Arc Reactor. But his schematics... they're dangerously unstable. He's trying to harness zero-point energy without the proper safeguards. This thing could literally implode a city block if it goes wrong." She shuddered, a memory flickering in her eyes. "My family... they were killed by a collapsing building. I can't let that happen again."
"That's it. That's her secret fear. Not just of violence, but of the chaos and collateral damage. It's a trauma she's been carrying, and I've just been so focused on the big picture that I missed it. She's not just an idealist. She's a survivor with a past."
I walked over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. We're not going to let that happen. We'll find him. We'll stop him."
She looked up at me, her eyes red from lack of sleep. "I know. It's just... so much. The tech, the Gu, the constant danger. It's a lot."
"Yeah," I said softly, squeezing her shoulder. "It is. But look at it this way. You're not alone in this anymore. You've got me, you've got Luis, you've got Scott, and you've got… Frank." I gestured to the corner, where Frank was now doing push-ups with one hand and a knife in the other, just for fun. "Okay, maybe that last one isn't the most comforting, but he's on our side. Mostly."
A small smile broke through her exhausted expression. "Mostly."
The mood softened. I decided to change the subject, to lighten the mood. "So, about this 'volatile, unstable essence' for the new Gu. I was thinking... maybe we need a character who is like, a human representation of a bad Wi-Fi connection? You know, powerful, but you never know when it's going to drop out."
She actually laughed, a real, genuine laugh that made the world feel a little less dark. "That's one way to put it." She picked up the Tech-Warp Gu, her fingers hovering over it. "The system says it needs a connection to technology and a volatile essence. It's not for me. My essence is... not volatile. It's... organized."
"Organized? Skye, you're the most beautifully chaotic mess of a genius I've ever met," I said, my voice dropping to a low tone. I regretted it the moment it came out of my mouth. Smooth, Adam. Real smooth. Way to turn a perfectly platonic moment into... whatever this is.
But she just looked at me, a soft, unreadable expression on her face. "Why can't I just be a normal, not-overthinking human? Oh, wait. Because I'm a Gu Master in the MCU. Normal is off the table, like a buffet on a Tuesday."
We spent the rest of the night pouring over the schematics. The device Jason was building was a miniature version of a power source that could essentially "tap" into the quantum realm, but in a way that was completely uncontrolled and unstable. It would cause massive spatial and temporal distortions. My meta-knowledge screamed alarm bells. This was a low-level, amateur version of something far more dangerous, something that could lead to a catastrophic event.
"Okay," I said finally, yawning. "So, Jason is building a bomb that's also a portal. Great. The perfect combination. What's next, a toaster that also gives you unsolicited dating advice?"
Skye, who had been staring at a specific part of the schematic, suddenly gasped. "Adam! I... I think I know who this is for. The 'volatile essence' part... there's a legend in the hacker community about a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was a master of infiltration and security. They called her... 'Ghost.' Her abilities were related to phasing. She could move through solid objects."
My heart pounded. Ava Starr. Ghost. The villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp. Her powers were unstable and caused her immense pain. She needed a device to stabilize her. A device that was a much more advanced, and safer, version of what Jason was building. But she wasn't a villain, not really. She was a victim. And she had a volatile, unstable essence.
"The Gu… it's perfect for her," I whispered, holding up the glowing sphere. "It's not about making a new weapon. It's about giving her a second chance."
Skye's eyes widened, a hopeful look spreading across her face. "You think we can find her? S.H.I.E.L.D. lost track of her years ago."
I tapped my comms earpiece. "Skye, you're looking at a guy who has a cheat sheet for the entire timeline. S.H.I.E.L.D. may have lost her, but I know where to start looking. We're not just stopping a villain. We're going to save a person."
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