A/N: warning: super sad, lots of suspense, and HUGE plot twist

but good news! it's a long chapter :)

so if you read my message board, you'll know that i started rewatching new girl and i felt really bored and sluggish every day until i started rewatching it and suddenly i feel like my life has a purpose again and it's to watch new girl and fawn over nick miller and *spoiler* his relationship with jess. is it weird to say that i'm in love with their love? i just feel all 🥰🥰🥰 when nick does all the stupid things he does bc he's in love with jess but the best part is he doesn't even know it yet which makes it a kajillion times better and i just 🥰🥰🥰🥰

so long story short don't be surprised if i base peter and ada off of those two

anyway, we better get onto the chapter or i could talk about this show literally all day

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"My message for you all, stay inside,

stay safe, and do not, by any means,

trust Director Nick Fury."
————————————————————

Happy had been on the phone all day.

He hadn't been able to get through to Fury himself, but those at SHIELD informed him that he was currently safe albeit very confused as he tried to figure out who was behind this.

But New York was asking one question: was Fury really the one to blame?

Reporters all across the state were scrambling to find answers. Many of them were crowded outside of SHIELD headquarters and the Avengers Facility in upstate New York, pouncing on anyone who dared to step foot outside and pound them with heavy questions.

Is Director Fury really the man behind this biological attack?

Who else was involved in this heinous crime?

Can SHIELD be trusted anymore?

Adelaide imagined Lukov sitting in his office, completely untouched by this chaos. He had sparked a flame that grew into a blazing fire and now he was sitting calmly, watching as those flames burned their way through the city.

When she asked Happy if they should tell Tony, Happy told him that he had tried to, but his and Pepper's phones were both switched off. She had tried calling them too, but no avail. Knowing Tony, he had probably turned them off so they could have the weekend to themselves without any distractions. It had been a good idea, considering that they would have been called back to New York within hours of even landing in Malibu. But that meant they were out of reach for the whole weekend, which was no help for them. And even if they had been able to reach them, Adelaide doubted they would have been able to do anything.

Because while everyone was pointing their fingers at Fury, Adelaide knew he wasn't the man to blame.

But it was her word against Fury's confession and she was a nobody with no proof to her claim. She could scream at the top of her lungs that Lukov was to blame, but no one would believe her. And even if she did, she was just as much to blame as Lukov was. She had helped him make the fumes in the first place, for fuck's sake.

If he went down, he would be taking her down with him.

"Anything?" Adelaide asked as Happy walked back into the kitchen, looking more frazzled then when he walked out to take a call. He shook his head with a sigh.

"I need to go to the facility upstate, see what little damage control I can do," he said.

"I'll come with you," she said immediately. Happy was shaking his head before she was even finished.

"It's too dangerous right now. Stay here, don't go anywhere outside. I'll give the orders to the downstairs lobby to not let anyone in or out of the building," he said. Her stomach swirled with anxiety. Things were bad and they were only getting worse. The tv had been playing the news all morning long and more and more people were getting infected. The sickness was contagious and it was spreading fast. There were no deaths but Adelaide had a dark feeling that wasn't going to last for very long.

Just when Adelaide was about to argue with him, the reporters suddenly came in more news.

"Breaking news. There has been a sudden development in the case of the biological attack allegedly made by Director Nicholas Fury of SHIELD."

Adelaide held her breath. This was about to be either really good or really, really bad. She had a sinking feeling it was going to be the latter. She could feel Happy stilling as he watched the tv.

"A man by the name of Ivan Lukov, formerly the Former Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has released this video just moments ago. Let's take a look."

Suddenly, Lukov's face appeared on the screen. He looked at the camera to make sure it was recording. She recognized his office in Brooklyn College and she wondered if he really worked there or if that had been a ruse as well.

"Hello. My name is Ivan Lukov. I've seen what these purple fumes have been doing to people. I've made several hospital visits to sick patients and gotten samples of their blood. I have been working tirelessly day and night for the past two days to find a solution for this biological weapon released by Director Fury. Whatever his reasons, I believe that I may have found a solution or a cure to this disease. I have good reason to believe that Fury created this disease with an extremely rare element by the name of Luxium that can be poisonous to humans. As a former agent of SHIELD, I know that there is only one cure to the fatal effects of Luxium and I am currently working to mass produce this cure to make it available for the city. My message for you all, stay inside, stay safe, and do not, by any means, trust Director Nick Fury."

The penthouse was pin-drop silent for a moment.

Then the reporters flooded the tv with their opinions of the video and Happy's several phones began ringing like an uncoordinated band. Adelaide found herself frozen, too shocked to move. She heard Happy talking on the phone at a mile a minute, but she couldn't barely register his words in her mind.

Her brain was hurting. There was a sharp pain in the back of her head and she winced, squeezing her eyes shut. Something wasn't right here. There was something she was forgetting. Something important.

Something about...Lukov.

"Stay — here," Happy said to her sternly, still on the phone as he quickly left the penthouse.

Adelaide stared at the closed elevator doors and then the tv again as the reporters speculated what would happen next. There it was again. That sharp pain in the back of her head. Except this time, it was much sharper and she stumbled off of her high chair at the kitchen island and made her way to her room.

Remember, a voice in her head said softly.

Her vision swayed and she fell against the wall several times, but she eventually stumbled into her room.

She was breathing unevenly, sweat was slowly trickling down her forehead, but she had to find that file.

That file that she stole from the SHIELD warehouse that day when Lukov had sent her to do his dirty work. She had forgotten about it after bringing it home, but something told her that this file had something important in there. Maybe the missing puzzle piece to this whole Lukov problem.

Breathing hard, she racked through the books on her shelf and her backpack and even searched her desk, knocking over several books and papers to the floor by accident in the process. She leaned her back against the wall, feeling the sharp pain again, this time even louder and she grunted in pain, gritting her teeth. She squeezed her eyes shut as stars swam in her vision.

Think about what you're forgetting, the voice said again.

She was trying hard to remember something that was just a few nanometers out of her reach. She let out a gruntled scream out of frustration. The more she tried to remember, the more it hurt. But she was certain now that it was the missing piece to this whole thing. If only she could remember.

That damned file. She had to find it.

Ignoring the pain that had taken over her vision and her head, she pushed herself off the wall and began searching again. She looked under the bed with much discomfort. She checked her dresser, throwing out of her clothes to check the bottom of the drawers. She was drenched in sweat, but she couldn't give up.

Reach into the back of your mind, Dellie.

And then, she saw it.

Peeking out from underneath the drawer of her bedside table. She had taped it under there to keep it hidden.

She quickly reached under there and yanked out the manila folder.

—————

The words were swimming across the page.

Adelaide squinted hard, trying to read the file as best she could, even with her head pounding faster than a hummingbird's heart.

The blurry letters slowly became clear.

The first page didn't have much at all.

Agent 113

Date: October 21, 1989

Description: black hair, brown eyes, scrawny build

Gender: Male

Age: 7

Paired with Agent #1585 for supervising

The second page made her even more confused.

Trial One

Date: November 15, 1986

Trial unsuccessful.

Trial Two

Date: November 24, 1986

Trial unsuccessful.

Trial Three

Date: November 25, 1986

Trial unsuccessful.

And it went on that way for a few dozen trials for a couple years. None of them were successful. What they were experimenting on that agent, she hadn't a clue. She thought hard about who it could be and what they could be experimenting with, but it only made her brain hurt even more.

She dropped the file to hold her head as it pulsed. She squeezed her eyes closed, but when she opened them, she saw that a small piece of paper had slipped out of the file and fallen onto the ground. Wincing, she slowly bent down to pick it up.

When she flipped it around, the face of a small boy was looking back up at her.

He matched the description in the file. Raven black hair, dark brown eyes, sickly-looking skin, a prominent frown fixated on his face. Something about him struck her as familiar. This wasn't the first time she was seeing his face. She had seen it somewhere before.

Her brain hurt just trying to remember.

Think, Dellie, think!

Her feet gave away and she sat down on the floor, leaning against the side of her bed as she stared at the picture.

The memory returned in flashes. She saw it in a negative light, with the faces distorted.

...today you will fight him, a voiced echoed in her head. She winced. She saw a room, but the image went away before she could remember it.

...will be killed, the voice echoed once again. This time it was louder, but the voice was still just as shaky. She held her head in her hands and pulled up her knees to her chest. A face flashed in front of her eyes. She could barely make out the face with the negative light. All she caught was the brown in the eyes before it flickered away.

She gritted her teeth. She could feel it. The lost memory was slowly coming back to her. Bit by bit, she was remembering.

She remembered that there had been a boy.

He looked sick. His skin was paper thin and covered with bruises. His eyes were sunken into their sockets. Without his shirt, she could count his ribs. The contrast of jet black hair which came down to the bottom of his neck made him look even paler. He couldn't possibly be healthy. Maybe he was dying.

She remembered that he struck her as strange and unlike anyone she had met before.

She spotted a black mark on his wrist. 113, it read. He caught her looking and he turned his hand away, scowling at her.

He had been too proud for his own good. She pressed her head with both hands as she forced herself to remember the rest.

And then, it all came back to her at once.

"Adelaide, today you will fight him," Lukov said once they were in the ring, "As you already know, if he loses, he will be killed."

Of course she knew that. She was honored that Lukov trusted her enough to make this decision. It had always been this way. Adelaide loved being so in control. She was addicted to the power of having someone's life in her hands.

He had to be younger than her. He barely came up to her shoulder.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I don't have a name," he spat in a shaky voice. She didn't know why he was angry. Maybe it was because he was about to die.

"Everyone has a name," she said. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"I don't," he snapped again. Adelaide gritted her teeth. What an asshole. It was a good thing he wasn't going to be around for much longer. She got into position, never taking her eyes off of him.

This should be easy. She didn't know what Lukov was thinking when he brought this frail little boy to fight her, but she didn't care because she would beat him and then Lukov would be proud. An easy victory.

The boy stood there, unsure of what to do with his hands. Adelaide smirked. Had he never fought anyone before? By the looks of it, he hadn't.

Adelaide made herself invisible and knocked his feet out from under him. He fell over with an oof and slowly tried to stand back up. He looked around for the girl but he couldn't see her anywhere. Lukov hadn't told him that she would have powers.

Suddenly, he felt someone punch his jaw and fell over again, now with blood dripping out of his mouth.

He closed his eyes, ignoring the throbbing pain in his jaw. He had felt worse before. He needed to focus on using what Lukov had taught him. The boy gritted his teeth, making a fist with his frail hands as he tried to bring the surge of power to his fingertips. When he opened his eyes, nothing was happening.

Adelaide pulled him up by the hair and bashed his head against the floor. He felt his skin splitting and the blood trickling down his face but he tried again to make the powers work. He wasn't even sure if they were there, but they had to be.

Or else, Lukov would kill him.

However, the boy didn't see it coming until the girl had him pinned to the floor by the neck. She became visible above him again and he gritted his teeth at the sight of the twisted smile on her face.

"You're...fucking...sick," he croaked, beginning to see black spots in his vision. She laughed, squeezing his throat harder.

"I've heard worse."

Her eyes shot open.

Lukov.

—————

Happy wasn't picking up.

And neither were Tony or Pepper.

She paced her room restlessly. She knew Happy had told her to stay home, but she couldn't do that. She had to do something to fix this. But what?

The boy in the file, from her memory...Adelaide had a feeling she knew who he was, but she hoped with all her heart that she was wrong because if she wasn't...she would never forgive herself.

She sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at the rug as she put together a plan of sorts.

She couldn't believe she had let it get this bad.

She should have recognized Lukov from the start when she coincidentally ran into him at that coffee shop. How much more stupid could she have been! Following along with every word he said, helping him destroy the city. She ran a hand down her face. This was what Lukov did. He manipulated people to get his way. She tried to tell herself it wasn't her fault, but she knew that wasn't true.

New York wouldn't be in shambles right now if it weren't for her.

Lukov was a liar. He hardly ever spoke the truth. And if he had lied about Luxium, then what else had he lied about?

Suddenly, she knew exactly what she had to do.

—————

When she showed up at the Manhattan Detention Complex with her glowing blue eyes and floating hoverboard, the officers weren't exactly willing to cooperate.

So, naturally, she apologized for inconveniencing them, made herself invisible, and did what she needed behind their backs instead.

She snuck into the copy room once it was empty and someone had left their laptop there, opened and unattended. And thank goodness they had because she was terrible at hacking into things. Quickly, she searched through the records, trying to find the list of arrests made roughly thirty days ago. There were quite a few, but only one matched the description she was looking for.

Two Russian men found webbed to their truck by none other than Spider-Man and pressed with charges of drug trafficking, illegal weapon use, and plenty of other charges she didn't have time to dig deep through. One thing was for sure, these two needed a therapist more than anything else. Once she got the cell number, she quickly left the copy room before someone caught her there.

She decided that the security cameras wouldn't look too functional if they saw elevator doors opening and closing and moving. So she opted for the stairs instead.

When she reached the correct floor, she found the holding cell with those two. She was still invisible so they hadn't spotted her yet, but she looked up and down the hall of holding cells, trying to make sure she wouldn't be spotted by any employees. It looked like she was safe for the moment being.

She reached for the handgun strapped to her leg and stepped in front of the bars, making herself visible to the inmates. She had her hand wrapped around the gun, but kept it invisible so they wouldn't see. Their eyes widened when they saw her.

"You!" they exclaimed from their corner of the cell. She smirked.

"Hello, boys. Got a couple minutes to talk?"

"We got nothing to say to you," the tall one spat, "You and your little spiderboy are the reason we're in here in the first place."

"Yeah," the other one agreed, "Get the hell out of here or we'll have you forced out."

"Is that so?" she asked, tilting her head, "Well, that's too bad. I was going to offer you two jailbreak in exchange for a little info."

They both glanced at each other, wondering if she was bluffing. Then they thought, what the hell. She was the closest they had gotten to a way out of here, might as well humor her a little.

"Wait," the tall one said, "What do you want to know?"

"That's more like it," she smiled, "Now, tell me if you two work for Ivan Lukov."

"He's our boss," the short one nodded. Adelaide gritted her teeth. Just as she had suspected.

"And he was the one who told you to kidnap Graves and kill him that night?" she asked, tightening her grip on her weapon.

"Boss only told us to deposit a package. I don't know any Graves," he said. Adelaide frowned.

"So you weren't ordered to kill him?" she asked. The tall Russian shook his head. "Where were you taking him to, then?"

They both glanced at each other, unsure.

"Listen, we can't tell you that kind of stuff," he said, "Boss would come for our heads if we told you where he was hiding."

Adelaide reminded herself to be patient.

And then she remembered that the city was in a crisis.

So she made her gun visible and held it straight out, aiming for the one who had spoken last. His eyes widened.

"O-Okay,