Chapter 13: A Glimmer of Hope in a Dark Past
[Main Mission: Find and recruit Ava Starr (Ghost). Reward: 200 Coins, 1 Gu egg. Side Mission: Avoid detection by S.H.I.E.L.D. Reward: 50 Coins.]
The plan was audacious, bordering on insane. Infiltrate a highly-monitored city to find a ghost-like woman who probably thinks the whole world is against her, and convince her to join a team of misfits led by a sarcastic guy who can summon magic bugs. It sounded like the logline for a rejected CW show.
"Man, I'd watch that show. I'd be the main character, so, you know… I'm biased. But still. It's got a certain charm. A 'we're all broken but we have cool powers' kind of charm. Just gotta hope the network doesn't cancel us after one season."
My Meta-Knowledge Gu was buzzing with details. Ava Starr's location was a closely guarded secret, but I knew the general area. She was in constant, agonizing pain, a side effect of her phasing abilities. The Quantum-Flux device Jason was building was a cheap, dangerous knock-off of the stabilizing device that Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne were eventually going to create for her. The Tech-Warp Gu could be a game-changer. It was designed to help a user with a "volatile, unstable essence" and a strong connection to technology. That was Ava Starr, in a nutshell.
The first hurdle was getting past S.H.I.E.L.D. As much as they were mostly gone post-Winter Soldier, their remnants were everywhere. They had surveillance, satellites, and a whole lot of questions they didn't want answered.
"Okay, so here's the deal," I said, standing in front of the monitor displaying a live satellite feed of our target area. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has this whole 'eyes in the sky' thing going on. We can't just stroll in. We need a distraction. A really, really good one."
Frank just grunted. "Blow something up."
"Frank, we're trying to not get caught by the good guys. Blowing something up would be counterproductive," I sighed. "Unless... Luis, I need you to do your thing. Your special, 'I can talk my way into a fortress' thing."
Luis's eyes lit up. "Oh, the 'talk my way into a fortress' thing! I love that thing! So, here's what I'm thinking. I'll go down to the S.H.I.E.L.D. field office and I'll pretend I'm an insurance agent. But not just any insurance agent. I'm selling insurance for superheroes, right? I've got this whole spiel about property damage, collateral damage, and 'what if your evil robot clone gets hit by a bus?' They'll be so confused and captivated by my fast-talking genius that they'll forget all about us."
"You know what? That's so stupid, it just might work. It's the kind of plan that a supervillain would dismiss as a joke, which makes it the perfect distraction. It's like the opposite of a magic trick: you're looking at the wrong hand, and the other hand is just... talking really fast."
Skye was a bit more direct. "I can use my Techno Gu to create a small-scale digital echo. It will look like a major data breach in another part of the city, forcing S.H.I.E.L.D. to divert their attention."
"Perfect," I said. "A two-pronged attack of incompetence and brilliance. I love it. Scott, you're our ghost. You'll go in first, find the location. She's probably not in a five-star hotel. She's hiding. Look for a place with weird energy signatures."
Scott, now back in his Ant-Man suit, saluted me. "You got it, boss."
The plan went off without a hitch, which was a surprise in and of itself. Luis, God bless him, had a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent so flustered he was actually considering a policy for his coffee machine. Skye's digital echo was a masterful piece of work, a perfectly crafted illusion of a data breach. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention diverted, Scott was able to get in undetected.
He found her in a dilapidated, abandoned research lab. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and the low hum of unstable energy. He sent a small beacon signal to my comms.
"Alright, team. We're on. Frank, you're the silent guardian. You stay back, but you keep an eye out. If anyone gets through our distractions, you deal with them. Luis, you stay on distraction duty. Skye, you're the safety net. You shut down their comms if they figure us out. I'm going in."
"Okay, Adam. This is it. No punches, no bullets. Just... words. You're good at words. You're sarcastic, a little witty, and you have the emotional depth of a puddle on a hot day. But you can do this. You just have to talk to her. Like a human. A weird, reality-warping, magic-bug-using human. Simple."
I found Ava in a small, sealed-off room, surrounded by monitors and wires. She was hunched over a workbench, her body flickering in and out of existence, a silent scream of pain on her face. Her phasing was out of control. Her very existence was a constant torture.
I didn't sneak in. I just walked in, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. "Ava Starr?"
She phased through the workbench, appearing behind me, her eyes wide with fear and suspicion. "Who are you? How did you find me?" Her voice was a whisper, a strained, painful sound.
"My name's Adam. And I'm not with S.H.I.E.L.D., I promise. I'm... a friend of a friend. And I think I can help you."
She laughed, a short, bitter sound. "Help me? No one can help me. I'm a ghost. A monster."
"No, you're not," I said, my voice as calm as I could make it. I held up the Tech-Warp Gu. "You're a person who's in pain. And this... this could give you a break."
She looked at the Gu, her eyes narrowing. "What is that? More of Pym's junk?"
"No. This is... something else. It's a Gu. It's an organic being that can give you a power. This one... it's for you. It's designed for someone with a volatile, unstable essence, a connection to technology. It can help you control your phasing. It can stop the pain."
She stared at me, a flicker of hope and a whole lot of doubt in her eyes. "You think you can just… give me a solution? Just like that? After all this time?"
"Look, I'm just a guy who knows things. And one of the things I know is that you don't deserve this. I'm not offering a cure, Ava. I'm offering a band-aid. A really, really powerful band-aid. It's a way to get your life back, even if it's just a little bit. It's a way to feel human again."
I extended my hand, the Gu glowing in my palm. The flicker of her body intensified, a sign of her instability. She looked at my hand, then at my face, searching for a lie.
Finally, she took a shaky step forward. Her hand phased through mine, and the Gu slipped right into her palm. It glowed brightly, a soothing light that enveloped her. For the first time, I saw her body solidify. The painful flickering stopped. She stood there, perfectly still, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"What... what did you do?" she whispered, her voice stronger now.
"I gave you a second chance," I said, my voice just as soft. "Now, do you want to be a ghost, or do you want to be a member of the team?"
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