Chapter Text
She ran, dodging rats, and clumps of unidentified garbage that lay literal feet from a plethora of garbage cans and dumpsters. Gods, she hated this city.
She especially hated this city in the rain, dashing through Queens with all of her belongings in tow.
On top of the rain, it was also early summer. Running between buildings, she felt like she was being lovingly smothered by a damp towel. Not a clean towel, but one you realize has probably been damp for a week and hasn’t been washed in months. It wasn’t pleasant.
Rolling in and out of huge asphalt craters, her suitcases jostled her already pained arm. It had only been three or so hours since she’d reset the dislocated joint against her fire escape. The damn thing had nearly snapped right off it’s rusty hinges. To be fair to the decaying apartment building she’d recently vacated, she was inhumanly strong and a dislocated joint would make it difficult for any enhanced person to keep their strength in check.
Her vision blurred suddenly, just as she was turning the corner from a side street down a tight alleyway. Blood dripped from a split along her hairline, mingling with sweat and city rain water, which helpfully dripped straight into her eyes. At this point she felt like a drowned cat and probably smelled like a wet dog. Super, awesomely attractive, right?
Stepping to the side of the shadowed alleyway, she brushed her soaked hair off her face and did her best to blink the likely contaminated liquid out of her vision And of course, as soon as she stopped moving, her brain finally had time to fixate on the last hour of her life and what an epic shitshow that had all become.
///
The scent of cigarette smoke wafting in through the open door was punctuated by the crash of glass to the floor. The door slammed shut so violently it knocked a framed portrait off the wall. Her boyfriend stormed through the apartment so swiftly that he had her up against the wall, pinning her by the throat before she could blink.
He had an ugly sneer on his face when he got in hers. “Do you wanna tell me what the fuck you were doing yesterday.” His breath smelled like he’d thrown up a day old sausage and eaten it again, and probably smoked those stupid cigars he loved with his idiot crony buddies for an hour after.
Kaida wasn’t short, but with him in his expensive shoes and her barefoot, he towered over her. Despite his horrendous stench and towering stature, Kaida didn’t even flinch as he invaded her space. She knew that he had noticed too, which only made his eyes sparkle menacingly. She wasn’t sure if he hated it when she didn’t immediately cower and defer to him, or if he loved it for the excuse it gave him to get physical with her.
She healed fast, so the bruises and other marks never lasted long.
Kaida popped her gum that she’d almost forgotten about and swallowed, right in his twisted face. She shrugged, and stared back at him blankly. “I went to work and I walked home the normal route I take. Why, trying to have one of your buddies stalk me again?” Kaida had to laugh internally about how terrible his buddies did at playing covert agents.
“You stupid bitch”, he replied, sounding almost elated with the direction the conversation was heading. “Did you really think you could save an entire elementary school in broad daylight and no one was going to catch you on camera?” David pulled out his phone and flourished it at her. On it, she saw a very grainy image of herself, dark clothes and a hoodie pulled low, shadow obscuring most of her face, surrounded by a blinding purple light that emanated from her hands and wrapped around the school building on the opposite side of the street from her. A helicopter had had a technical malfunction and lost flight control, and attempted to land on the streets of New York City, and it had almost worked. But the velocity of the downward plunge had been too much for the rebooted rotors to combat, and the helicopter had careened into the foundations of an elementary school on that block. The video thrust her back into reliving that afternoon
///
Kaida was hustling home after work, ready to take a load off after dealing with the most inane tour groups and their never ending questions all day long. But, as though the world needed to prove to her that she was not allowed to relax or have an uneventful day, her moody walk home was abruptly interrupted by a loud mechanical whirring, much too close to the ground to be casual or intentional in the tight forest of skyscrapers that she made her home. It was all she could do to watch as the helicopter slammed into the side of the building, the rotors and tail taking most of the damage. In fact, it didn’t look like the cabin had sustained altogether too much damage at all.
Thankfully school had let out and not even the janitor was in that wing of the building. There were, however, droves of children standing out front of the school, waiting to board buses or hop into their parents cars once the after school care program let out for the evening. The building shuddered and creaked, before the foundations started bending with a metallic groan. The path of the building's fall would’ve landed it right on top of the after school program and nearby pedestrian traffic. All of this happened in the span of about 30 seconds.
So Kaida, without thinking and against her better judgement, had pushed out with the cosmic energy that flowed through her veins and willed the school to remain upright. When her hold was solid and all forward progress had ceased, she gently pushed the building back to its original angle, trying to feel the balance of the building’s weight, despite the gaping hole in the first three floors of the building.
While she worked to stabilize the building as best she could, she heard a familiar thwip, thwip sound, and suddenly the helicopter was being dragged out from the side of the school building, and Spider-Man was swinging around the building, using his webs to create support channels to solidify the temporary stability she’d created.
As soon as the hero had ensured the building was no longer a fall risk, he looked right at the place she’d been standing. If his gaze was a spear, she’d have been struck right through the middle. But the masked hero whipped his head around frantically, like she was nowhere to be seen. Which she wasn’t, she’d already faded into the shadows, and she hoped he’d forget she ever existed.
Kaida, as a rule, tried her best to tread the middle ground. She wasn’t a hero. She wasn’t out to make a name for herself, good or bad. Being a hero sounded like hell. It was a huge commitment, and the expectations that came with being a ‘hero’ seem way too high. She was just a person. A person who could melt into shadows, summon cosmic powers she didn’t fully understand, and heal unnaturally fast. The few people who were aware of her powers, most of them were utterly confused about why she rejected the whole save the world shtick, assuming that because she was born with these abilities, obviously they should be used for the public good.
To Kaida, it was infuriatingly simple. Not every tall, athletic person absolutely HAS to play basketball just because they’re tall. Just because being tall and athletic means you have the natural tools to be a good basketball player doesn’t automatically mean you have the desire or drive to ever even touch a basketball in your life. And that’s fine. But a powered person being neutral? That’s obviously a moral atrocity that must be corrected when possible, and shamed always.
But that day, yesterday, she’d surprised herself. She would’ve been clear of the building's downward trajectory. Yet, without hesitation, she’d acted. She’d let her power curl out of her, responding instantly to enforce her will, which was that the building not crush at least one entire grade of elementary school kids while she was walking home, already in a shitty mood.
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Kaida wasn’t a hero. And the only two people who believed she shouldn’t be were standing in her bedroom right at that moment. David’s free fist slamming into her gut and his other hand gripping the back of her neck to slam her head against the end table next to her succeeded in snapping her out of her memories of the previous day.
Kaida lay stunned on the floor. After leaving her with a few swift kicks to the ribs, and snarling at her to get out of his sight and never come back, Kaida blacked out for what felt like hours but was closer to two minutes, she noticed when her eyes focused enough to be able to read the clock on the wall.
She winced as she sat back up, already feeling her power knit a snapped rib back together. She had had two options, let her body wrap up the healing process and pack her things with her own two hands, or delay fixing the rest of her body for a few hours and use her powers to magically pack in about two minutes flat.
The only thing Kaida hated more than superheroes was packing. She would live, and could heal later.
Bracing herself against the wall of the nearest building, she pulled a flask out of the interior pocket of her jacket and took a swig. The flask was light pink with the words “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” emblazoned on the side. It filled her with a dark sense of glee and irony every time she used it. She’d nicked it from one of those chain party supply stores a few months back, which she supposed would be her version of fun.
The whiskey burned as it went down but as it hit her stomach it helped to warm her rain soaked bones.
She began moving again. As her vision straightened back out again, the dull walls of the building that seemed to loom overhead felt like they were closing in on her. As she wove in and out of the misshapen piles in the alleyway, she felt the hair prickle on the back of her neck. It felt like she had a curious pair of eyes, tracking her every move. She ignored her most basic instinct to turn around and investigate and her training kicked in instead. Her eyes swept the alleyway ahead of her, monitoring the shadows, ears open and head down.
She checked every shiny surface to see the reflection behind her. Empty alleyways are all that she saw. So she shoved aside her intrusive paranoia and started whistling tunelessly as she moved. David’s friends would be too clumsy and stupid for her not to have clocked them already, despite her current condition. And Kaida felt secure that no one else had any interest in tracking her through dirty alleyways in the middle of a humid rainstorm on one of the hottest days of the year thus far. Besides, she’d felt that prickle, that inkling of premonition for days and nothing had come of it.
In front of her, business lights filtered through the rain, casting a glow over the stone walls. Wet, sputtering and a little drunk, it only made sense that she would become the target of some less friendly men who had stationed themselves outside of a local dive bar. They jeered and reached out at her, some even trying to circle up around her, like a pack of hyenas encircling their prey. . “Piss off you assholes, I’m not in the mood.”
Their jabbered on as the formed a loose ring around her, their comments ranged from demands that she take off her clothes to false coos asking her if she needed their help to warm up to jokes about them being so good in bed women were jumping at the chance and willing to move in with them immediately to lock it down. Because, obviously that’s what she was doing, dragging her luggage in front of the bar for just a casual weekday hookup.
The rain got harder as she clenched her fist, glaring daggers at them and trying to subtly move faster. Everything about her body language screamed 'don't fuck with me', but it's hard to be intimidating when you’re soaking wet and clearly battered. They advanced anyways and with a flick of her wrist and a loud woosh, they all got tossed back into the brick wall, hard. The crack of a few skulls echoed down the otherwise empty alley, interrupted only by their groans as a few immediately came to.
The tingling on the back of her neck got more intense, this time joined by a fuzzy feeling alarm in the back of her brain. She hustled along, eager to get the hell out of Queens. She hadn't taken more than three steps when she heard him. “Woah, what was that? I webbed up those guys back there, they won't be able to move for a few hours. What was that though, can you like manipulate energy or is this outside the realm of earthly physics? Are you an alien? Or a mutant maybe? Or..."
Without looking up she sent another blast towards the overly excited voice and immediately heard an oomph followed by the sound of a body rushing towards the pavement. Or, rather, a dumpster.
“Hey not cool,” said the guy, poking his head up and out of the dumpster.
She groaned, immediately recognizing the mask, despite it being covered in what looked a lot like smashed avocado on the left side of the heroes head. Spider-Man.
Pushing her bags together, around her feet, she bound them to herself and alighted on the nearest rooftop, gently floating upward. She figured the enhanced cat was already out of the bag with current company, so to speak. She ran along the flat roofs of the decrepit, abandoned buildings with still no destination in mind but out.
“Wait up, where are you going, stop! We're friends now right? It's rude to ignore your friends, and I'm the friendliest of friends, you know. Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and all...” he babbled on lamely, his voice fading in and out as he swung between buildings, keeping up as she hopped from roof to roof.
“Buzz off buggy”, Kaida grumbled before sending another shot his way.
“You’re really bad at paying attention to where I am, aren’t you” Spidey suddenly whispered in her ear. She shrieked and came to a halt, dropping her luggage next to her feet, leaving it to topple and sprawl as it would. As she sat to dangle her feet off the ledge of whatever shitty building she was on now. As expected, that lanky ass fool sat down right next to her.
“So, where are you going, miss uh… strange power lady?”
“I don’t kno-”, she cut herself off and looked at him strangely. “Wait, why are you even here?”
“Well funny story," he huffed out, looking over at me. His masked eyes contracted as he continued to just look in her direction, totally silent. Kaida began to wonder if she’d suddenly morphed into Medusa, who was very much real, in case you were wondering. Empty air still hung between them, and the city was strangely quiet around them, like everyone nearby had gotten a collective memo to hold their breath.
She was seconds away from physically shoving him off of the building. For someone who apparently couldn't keep his mouth shut when she wanted him to, he was as silent and one of those monks now when she actually wanted to hear his whiny voice. Then, just as she was about to snap, he lifted his chin and squared his shoulders.
"Have you ever heard of the Avengers?”