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Suddenly all the lights turned off and for the first time since she’d been in the city, YoYo could see the stars. Something that always amazed her was that these constellations are the same ones she’d see in Columbia, despite the towering distance. Her awe of the stars fell away when a guy came up to her and her friends.
“Why isn’t my phone working?” Jess asked.
“It’s is probably an EMP,” YoYo explained.
“A what?” Maria questioned.
“An electromagnetic pulse, it overloads the power,” YoYo replied.
“This is what you're learning in LA?” Jess scoffed.
“The power is out in the whole city,” he informed them, “we should go down to the lobby and try to find someone who knows what’s going on.”
“No, no-” YoYo argued, “we are safer up here.”
“Sammy is out there,” Maria stated, “I have to get to him.”
YoYo’s other friend’s face dropped. “Ugh, 40 floors in heels?”
YoYo smirked. “That’s why I never wear them.”
As they all made their way down the stairs, YoYo couldn’t help but think of every worst case scenario on the power outage. The flurry of people going down the stairs were not helping with her nerves either. She chewed on her bottom lip until they made it to the main floor. She noticed several people trying to turn on their phone, quite a few of them with unprecedented methods. Yoyo grouped with her friends again, Maria was just panicking about her to-be-husband.
“Listen, we need to just stay put,” YoYo insisted.
“I can’t Elena-” Maria started, but was interrupted by a crash coming from the front.
Everyone whipped around to see what the commotion was. The answer was something that made YoYo’s stomach drop. Several armed men in deranged dog masks ran inside, surrounding everyone.
The guy who came up to talk to tell them about the power outage-Manny- slinked up to the main man with his wallet and watch in his hands.
“Here, please-”
The leader- Briggs, YoYo heard- slapped the contents of his hands away. “We don’t want your money!” he snarled, “where is the inhuman?”
Shit. YoYo didn’t make a move. She was arguing with herself in her head. If I turn myself in…I’m dead. If I don’t, the others could die. There are too many to stop by myself without anything to tie them up with.
“I don’t know why they think one of those disgraces would show their face here,” Maria whispered to her.
YoYo frowned and it felt like her heart was stabbed with a wooden stake. “They are people too,” she defended, “they deserve to be here as much as we do.”
Maria scoffed, “are you serious? Is this what LA did to you? Please don’t tell me you're vegan too.”
“Hey. I’m on your side brother, and I think I know who the inhuman is,” Manny whispered, slowly walking up to the leader again. He pointed to the magician trying to hide behind people. “He calls himself the amazing Mertz. He was doing all kinds of weird stuff earlier. Claims it’s a gift.”
The soldiers grabbed the magician aggressively and forced him to his knees. “It-it’s not me! I swear! It's called sleight of hand you idiots!”
His begging was not enough. Briggs turned to who seemed to be his right-hand-man. “Would you like to do the honors?”
Several women screamed and YoYo’s breath hitched. She couldn’t let anyone die. She silently prayed to God and in less than a second felt the slow wind in her hair and gripped the gun behind her back. She looked around to make sure no one saw her as she dropped the gun in the plant directly behind her.
The soldier was looking around in confusion on where the gun went. “Where did it go?”
The leader whipped around back to Mertz. “What did you do?” He pulled out his own gun and was about to pull the trigger when YoYo sped into action again. The terrorists were all staring at each other in surprise and anger. YoYo slowly dropped the gun into the plant again, but she wasn’t as careful as the first time.
“Elena… where did you get that?” Maria gasped.
YoYo cursed inwardly. “Maria- wait.”
“No, it’s you!” She yelped and backed away.
All the men had their guns trained on her at once. Screams filled the room and YoYo suddenly wished Mack was with her. Welp, my cover is blown, no point in being careful now. She took a step and felt everything slow down around her as she made her way to each and every terrorist. She got to Briggs and suddenly felt pain explode in her stomach and travel up every nerve in her body. Her heart sped up and before she could process anything she was on the floor by the plant with the guns. Her friends were already backed far away and it was like she was in her own bubble, which was currently slowly deflating.
YoYo cried out in pain and clutched her stomach. Her hand was met with a thick wire that glowed blue on the inside. She tried to yank it off, but as a result was shocked again and screamed. Her body was sore, and she could smell her own burnt clothes and skin. She straightened as best she could and scooted against the pot of the plant.
She looked to her right and saw her friends huddling together, staring at her as if she was a dangerous animal. YoYo bit back some tears, and took a deep breath in. She made eye contact with Briggs, who was holding a strange looking gun- presumably the one that shot out the wire. He smiled, and a wild look filled his eyes.
“You inhumans don’t deserve to be here,” he said, “you’re monsters. You destroy everything and hurt people. Tell me-” he said this next part to the crowd, “who feels safe knowing she’s here?”
No one raised their hand. YoYo looked imploringly at Maria; Maria looked away. YoYo felt her eyes well with water, but she blinked them away and grit her teeth under her lips. It felt like she was holding a steady, intimidating face, but she couldn’t be sure she didn’t look like a fool because she was in so much pain instead.
“Instead of just shooting you right away… why don’t we let the crowd handle some of the punishment for your existence,” Briggs suggested.
Some of the men seemed to like that idea. YoYo watched as several of the bigger men, most of them who were racist and YoYo never really liked anyways, stepped forward. They cracked their knuckles and smiled viciously at her. YoYo spat angrily in front of the man in the lead- James. He didn’t like that. Before YoYo could roll away, she was lifted off the ground and was nose to nose with the big man.
“Your kind doesn’t deserve to be alive,” he snarled.
Your stupid ass doesn’t deserve to be born.
YoYo flung her foot back and then forward again to reward the man with a kick between the legs. He screamed and dropped her, and fortunately, she landed on her feet. She ran the opposite direction as fast as she could, the crowd- at first- clearing the way. YoYo was mildly surprised none of the soldiers were trying to stop her, but she wasn’t thinking all that clear anyways.
Her gut was burning, and with the running, she felt something wet and sticky stain her shirt. Suddenly the crowd started collapsing again and were trying to grab her, but YoYo punched, kicked, and pushed anyone in her way. That is, until someone from behind grabbed the collar of her jacket and she was thrown to the ground.
She landed on her back, the metal wire pressing into her spine, and tilted her head back to see who stopped her. It was Maria.
“Maria…” YoYo whispered helplessly, “why? We were friends. I’m still me!”
Maria looked at her, something in her eyes told YoYo she was conflicted with herself. Then the sign that she was on YoYo’s side went away, and Maria’s gaze was cold. A man came and took the grip on YoYo’s jacket and dragged her back to the middle of the lobby. Briggs knelt down on his feet and held a finger up to YoYo’s face.
“Uh-uh-uh,” he tsked, smirking.
He pressed a button on the side of the glowing gun that unleashed the metal wire, and YoYo was instantly screaming as electric shocks traveled through her nerves. She thought the pain would last forever, but suddenly, it stopped. Through the haze of pain, YoYo could see that Briggs was now lying on the ground next to her, blood pouring from a hole in his head.
She gasped in surprise, and cried out half in relief, half in agony. There was a commanding voice shouting orders and YoYo felt the bubble grow bigger. Suddenly Mack was helping YoYo sit up against him, and suddenly it was on her and him in the whole world.
She felt the metal wire detach and be pulled away from her body while she folded into Mack’s strong and comforting arms. He was whispering some calming things, YoYo couldn’t really hear over the sounds coming from her own mouth as Fitz lifted up her shirt to inspect the damage.
Her gut was marked with an angry black and deep red line circling her torso. It was oozing blood from cracks in the skin, and there were bruises and lines like lightning bolts all around the main wound.
“Sir, it’s bad.” Fitz commented. “Third degree burns in the middle of the wound, and pretty bad damage to the surrounding tissue, and probably some nerves too. That wire was meant to kill if need be.”
“It’s okay YoYo,” Mack soothed, “we got you now.”
YoYo let a tear fall down her cheek. “I know,” she replied.
“The men were all a part of the watchdogs,” Coulson explained, “they are targeting inhumans I’m guessing.”
“How did they know I was here?” YoYo rasped.
Coulson frowned, “I’m not sure.”
“We need to find them,” Fitz stated.
YoYo moved slightly, like she was going to get up, but the pain was too much. Mack looked down at her worriedly. “YoYo needs medical attention.”
“She’ll get some,” Coulson agreed, “but without power there is not much we can do. You get her back to the car, there is some basic med supplies in there and you guys should be relatively safe. Fitz and I will find the EMP.”
Mack nodded and shuffled himself out from under his girlfriend. He carefully placed his hand under her legs and against her back.
“Careful-” Fitz cautioned.
Mack nodded knowingly. YoYo bit her bottom lip to stop from making any noise, but it didn’t stop the whimpers. When she was up in Mack’s arms, he gently placed a kiss on the top of her head.
“Make sure you clean the wound before wrapping it,” Fitz told him.
The guys all nodded to each other and Mack started walking- very quickly- out the door. YoYo got a good look at all the tied up men on the floor, and saw the room where all of the guests were being held. She made eye contact with Maria for a split second before her ex-friend looked away guiltily again.
…
Mack closed the door to the van and threw the last box of equipment in the front seat. With the seats folded down, the back of the van was pretty comfy- relatively speaking. YoYo was propped against the wall as Mack shuffled through all of the medical supplies. He managed to find a water bottle and slowly lifted YoYo’s shirt. She grimaced and gripped Mack’s arm, anticipating the pain to come.
Mack definitely felt her nails clawing into his muscle, but he showed no sign of it. He looked YoYo straight in the eye and waited for her nod before pouring the water on the burn. YoYo groaned and squeezed Mack’s bicep harder.
“Almost…” Mack breathed, “done.”
YoYo released her vice grip and panted haggardly. Her vision was blurring slightly for a moment, but after a few seconds of breathing it cleared. What confused YoYo, though, was that in those few second her abdomen was wrapped and her head was leaning against Mack’s shoulder.
“What happened?” YoYo asked groggily.
Mack’s eyes were closed, but he answered. “You passed out for a second, have me an opportunity to wrap you without much trouble.” Mack opened his eyes and gazed into YoYo’s. “Are you okay?”
She shrugged, “I could be better.” They sat in silence for a moment before YoYo said, “after everything we’ve been through, Maria still betrayed me. Just because I’m inhuman.” Mack stayed silent, letting YoYo vent. “I’m still me, just… with powers. I don’t get why our friendship has to be broken because of that.”
Mack gave her another kiss on the head and laid his on top of hers. He didn’t quite know what to say, but YoYo didn’t need him to say anything. She just wanted him to be with her.