Archive of Our Own ^beta

The meeting was meant to be a routine one. Just a meet up of some of the members to get an idea on how everyone was doing and trade any new information. After all, things had been quiet for a while and Smitty had not given any indication that he had seen anything bad happening. So, here they were, having a cliche meeting in a cliche abandoned warehouse in the cliche bad part of town.

“‘Sup, Matt!” Fitz called out as Matt walked up to the rest of the gathered Talented. He gave a smile to those recognized and subtly eyed the two newcomers. Fitz mentioned bringing two new kids into the Misfits and said he would bring them to the status meeting for a small-scale introduction. One of the young men was tall and leanly muscled with dark skin and a short afro while the other was short -almost Pezzy’s height- and had pale skin and wavy brown hair streaked with grey. They both looked nervously excited, the smaller one fiddling nervously with the sleeves of his sweater while the taller was wringing his hands.

“Everyone here? Good,” Fitz said, after a quick head count. “Let’s start with introductions. Everyone, this is Sovi.” He pointed to the tall one. “And this is Daukey.” He pointed to the shorter one. “Guys, this is Pezzy and Grizzy from the Clooless crew.”

“Hey, there!” Pezzy greeted with a smile while Grizzy nodded.

“Over there is Isaac and Nick from The Group.”

“Nice to meet you,” Nick said while Isaac waved somewhat awkwardly.

“And, last but not least, is Matt.”

Matt smiled and stepped forward, extending his hand. “Glad you could join us.”

Sovi reached back and took his hand with a half-smile, half-smirk. Then, in a perfect replication of Matt’s voice replied, “Glad to be here.”

“Oh, what the fuck?” Grizzy said, sounding as shocked as Matt felt.

Daukey elbowed Sovi in his side, causing him to recoil with a laugh that sounded like it might be his own. “Sorry about him. He doesn’t know when to turn it off sometimes.”

“That’s Sovi’s ability. He’s a vocal mimic. Basically can recreate any sound,” Fitz explained.

“Not gonna lie. That’s freaky as hell,” Isaac said and the others nodded in agreement.

“Not like Dooo’s Talent is much freakier,” Matt pointed out.

“What about you, Daukey?” Pezzy asked.

The kid scratched his neck in a nervous tick, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “It’s a bit embarrassing.”

“What? Like acid vomit? I met a kid who could do that,” Isaac said and Nick groaned.

“Please stop bringing up Quincy. Nobody wants to hear about Cornelius,” he pleaded.

“I wanna hear about Cornelius,” Grizzy said, raising his hand.

Matt watched, bemused, as Isaac and Nick devolved into squabbling while Grizzy still tried to get the story of Cornelius told. He was just about to break it up and get everyone back on track when he spotted a strange flicker of light on Fitz’s chest. At the same moment his brain registered it as a laser sight for a rifle, Daukey shouted and shoved Fitz hard. A gunshot rang out in the warehouse and the kid’s head snapped to the side, a spray of blood soaking the concrete as he collapsed, unmoving. Then everything went to hell.

Matt let out a breath when the sunset colored shield surrounded them, casting a grateful glance towards Pezzy who was staring wide-eyed at Daukey’s body. More shots rang out, sounding muffled through the shield, and now he could see the strike team surrounding them. First, he made eye contact with Grizzy who nodded back, cracking his knuckles ominously. Then, he looked at Isaac and Nick, each nodding and the former pulling off his face mask to reveal a fanged smile full of malice. Lastly, he looked to Fitz, who was pale white but determined as he got back to his feet. Matt did not even look at Sovi who had fallen to his knees beside his friend. Vengeance would be had either way and Matt would prefer to not put the kid through any more violence.

They all moved without a word, each finding his own target. Then, Pezzy opened doorways in his shield and the fight was on. A deafening clap of thunder signalled Fitz was not holding back and Matt was determined to go all out as well. He ducked behind some unidentifiable machinery, clenching his fists and letting the pressure build in his chest. He had the attention of at least two members of the strike team. There was a pause, either to reload their rifles or to come up with a different attack strategy but it was enough. Matt let out a breath and rolled out of cover, letting the built up pressure explode out of him. His body shot forward into the two men, sending them all crashing to the floor. He barely felt the impact, protected by his explosion while the two strike team members were unconscious or worse. He did not stop to check.

Ducking back to cover, he looked around to see how the others were doing. Grizzy was viciously throwing one of the strike team members aside while holding another in a headlock with one hand. Fitz was across from him, two smoking bodies at his feet and sparks dancing around his fingers. The last three members of the strike team were kneeling motionless a few feet away from Isaac and Nick, their weapons well out of reach as they stared slack-jawed at the power couple.Grizzy let out a grunt as the last guy was tossed unceremoniously to the floor.

It was silent for a few breaths before Pezzy’s shield dissipated and the shield maker fell to his hands and knees, sobbing for breath. Grizzy made it to his side first, pulling him close while looking sadly to where Sovi was still kneeling next to Daukey’s body. Fitz and Matt also made their way over and to Isaac and Nick, Matt asked, “You guys got them?”

“Yep!” Isaac said, gleeful and dark. “They won’t be giving us any more trouble.” Then he glared at the three kneeling men and said, “New rule: Everyone, go to sleep.”

Matt could feel the hairs on his neck stand on end as all three of the men slumped over like puppets with no strings. “Good,” he said before walking over to Fitz, clapping him softly on the shoulder. “You ok?”

“He shoved me out of the way,” Fitz whispered, sounding equal parts shocked and horrified. “I didn’t…”

“You couldn’t have known,” Matt cut him off.

“Fuck!” Fitz suddenly exclaimed, his hands coming up to pull at his short hair.

Matt hesitated to stop him, sparks arching dangerously from Fitz’s arms when a new voice caused them all to freeze.

“Welcome back.”

All eyes whipped around towards Sovi who was helping Daukey sit up, the smaller swaying where he sat and his face and hair matted with blood. Daukey garbled out something that might have been words, blood dripped heavily from his mouth.

“Give it a minute. You still sound like Kenny,” Sovi said softly while gently rubbing his friend’s back.

Daukey raised his head in jerky motions to reveal pale grey skin with thick black veins and cloudy, dead grey eyes and Matt had to swallow down a gag.

“What the fuck,” Fitz stated, sounding ill.

Sovi didn’t even look at them as he slipped off his hoodie and helped Daukey put it on, seemingly unfazed by the copious amounts of blood and gore as he pulled his hood up for him. “He’ll be better in a bit but he probably won’t be all there for a few more hours. Hits to the brain take longer to come back from.”

“What the fuck,” Pezzy repeated.

“It’s his Talent.” Sovi didn’t sound offended but there was a slight edge to his voice that said he didn’t want to talk about it. “Don’t we need to get moving?”

The question jolted Matt from his stupor. “Oh shit. Yeah, we need to get out of here.”

Just then, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and raised an eyebrow at seeing a message from Smitty.

Bring the ducky.

“What the hell does that mean?” he muttered.

“Something wrong?” Grizzy asked.

Matt explained the message and Sovi perked up. “Oh! That’s probably Aiden. He’s got a thing with ducks.”

“Daukey. Ducky. Makes sense,” Fitz said.

Matt nodded and sent a thumbs up back to Smitty. “You all wanna come back to mine?”

Sovi, Fitz, Grizzy and Pezzy all nodded while Nick piped up, “Isaac and I will probably head home from here. The kids will worry otherwise.”

“Fair enough. Text us when you get home safe?” Fitz asked although it sounded more like an order.

Isaac gave a mock salute, having already put back on his mask and sunglasses, while Nick said, “You got it. You guys be safe.”

They exchanged goodbyes and hurried back to their separate rides, Sovi choosing to carry Daukey back to Fitz’s car without any help from the others. Matt closed his driver’s side door and let out a large breath, his head dropping in his sudden exhaustion.

What the hell just happened?