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Chapter I: A deal with the devil6,215 words
Chapter II: A night with the devil7,139 words

Chapter II: A night with the devil

Spitfire opened her eyes and quickly sat on her bed. She was sweating and breathing loudly, looking everywhere around her in total panic. She calmed down, put her hand on her chest and she started breathing exercises to regain her calm.

“That nightmare again…” She said, sighing.

She was sleeping in a room given to her by Bruce Banner, in a secret complex in the middle of nowhere. After she told him her story, he said that they needed her to stick around, to do some test or some things like that. She didn’t mind, in fact she was happy to help, but it was hard to remember… In fact, she didn’t want to remember. It happened seven years ago and she wanted it to stay in the past.

“Stop running away from your problems, Spitfire.” She said to herself, remembering the words from one of her friends, sitting on the edge of her bed.

She checked her phone and saw it was only five in the morning. She rolled her eyes, but she knew she couldn’t go to sleep right now, so she gets up, stretched a bit, and walked toward the door.

She actually had no idea where she was, she didn’t have any window in her room, so she thought that maybe she was underground or something like that. When she walked towards the door, she grumbled when it opened itself.

“Everyone could have entered with no problem… That’s great, I’m not into privacy that much.” She said to herself, not forgetting her pack of smoke before leaving her room.

She walked silently in a blank corridor, every step she makes did a sound echoing through the empty halls. When she arrived at the end of the corridor, she entered a small room where a woman was sat in a big black office chair, behind a desk.

“Miss Spitfire, good mornin’.” She said smiling at her with a strong country accent. “Can Ah ask where ya’ goin’?”

Spitfire didn’t reply, she just shows to the woman her pack of smoke and the woman nodded, pushing a button on her desk, calling the elevator.

“Be quick though,” She said, “Ah’m not supposed to let ya’ out right now.”

“Yeah, thanks I suppose.” Spitfire replied, entering the elevator.

She didn’t have to do anything that the elevator starts climbing to an unknown floor. Spitfire frowned, sure she was happy to help them, but they could at least tell her where she was and what she was supposed to do. She almost felt like she was in prison. At least they weren’t keeping her against her will, she agreed to it but… What if she said no? Would they have forced her?

“Meh, if that was the case, I could’ve whooped their asses in an instant.” She said to herself, hopping it was true.

Just before complaining it was taking too long, the elevator stopped and opened directly outside, in some sort of balcony. The sun wasn’t out yet, but she could see clearly in the night in front of her. The building where she was, was surrounded by trees. A lot of trees.

“Great, so we’re in a forest in the middle of nowhere that’s right?” Of course, no one replied.

She took a cigarette from her pack and light it up, before walking towards the fence, laying her arms on it.

She took a hit and slowly lets out the smoke from her mouth.

She shivered and was glad she took her jacket, the wind was cold and Spitfire remembered it was almost Christmas. She wasn’t the type of person who liked Christmas, she had nobody to celebrate with anyway…

She remembered when she was young, she used to spend Christmas with her mother and her uncle. She never knew her father, but her uncle used to always be there for her, but he died when she was ten and since, it was just her and her mother. Christmas never was the same without him, and every year, it became more and more sad until she dropped it and didn’t celebrate Christmas anymore.

Who knows, maybe she’ll spend Christmas here this year. That thought made her sigh.

She took another hit on her cigarette and started to think about her situation.

Even if it wasn’t a five stars hotel, Spitfire wasn’t complaining that much. She heard interesting things last night before going to sleep. She heard some ‘agents’, because that was how they were called, talking about some stuff. At first, Spitfire didn’t care much of what they were talking about, but when she started to listen closely, she found it to be… Surprising. She heard them talk about a girl starting to play super hero, calling herself Spider-girl, and they were watching her very closely.

Spitfire laughed at that, it seems she was still a kid, and she hopped she wasn’t going to let herself killed.

She looked up at the empty, star-less sky and sighed, taking another hit on her smoke. Maybe she could have done that rather than staying in her home, drinking beer and smoking weed. Welp, she quit smoking weed two years ago, but she still wasn’t proud of that part of her life.

With her capacity she could’ve help a lot of people. But she didn’t, she kept it hidden. The truth was that she was afraid of it. Not that she couldn’t control it, she learned that, but she didn’t want to hurt people. Not anymore. Not with the power he gave to her. She already lost so much because of that power…

And to be honest, Spitfire couldn’t see a world where she was a hero. Not after what happened.

She turned her head when she heard the elevator opening, she blew smoke from her nose and turned her gaze away, when she saw who it was.

“Ah, Spitfire, I was told I could find you here. I’m surprised you’re already awake.” Dr Bruce Banner said, walking toward her with two cups of coffee, his messy hair showing he was just getting out of bed. He was wearing his pair of glasses and a long white bathrobe.

She didn’t waste any more time and asked, scowling at him, “Where are we exactly?”

He chuckled and took place next to her, mimicking her position, “Straight to the point uh?”

Seeing she was glaring at him he smiled and held out to her a cup of coffee. She took it but didn’t thanks him for it.

“We’re in one of the SHIELD headquarters, not too far away from Canterlot City. In fact, we’re at the edge of a forest called the Everfree Forest.”

She raised an eyebrow, taking a sip from her coffee. “The SHIELD?”

“The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.” He nodded.

“And I’m supposed to know that?” She asked.

He grinned and said, “Nope, not at all.”

“And what you guys are doing here?” She asked, if she was going to stay here a while, she could at least know what they were going to do.

“We’re a special law enforcement and counter terrorism agency…” He sighed, “But now we mostly deal with paranormal and superhuman threats to international security.”

“Am I a threat?” Spitfire asked, looking in front of her.

“We don’t think you are,” He said, “Are you?”

She looked at him, and for the first time, snickered. “Maybe.”

“It’ll be a shame,” He said, taking a sip from his drink, “I was starting to like you.”

It almost made Spitfire blush, almost, “Eh, that’s because you don’t know me very well.”

“I think I know more about you that you’ll probably think.” He replied, an amusing glare on his face. “After all, I know everything about you, you told me your story remember?”

Spitfire sighed and looked away, finishing her coffee, “I didn’t tell you… everything.”

“Is that so?” He asked, not surprised a bit. “So, what about you told me a bit more then?”

“I…”

“Off the record,” He quickly added, “Just you and me.”

Spitfire took a look at him and saw a sincere smile on his face. Maybe, just for once, she could drop her guard. “Well…”

Like I told you, I had a mission engraved in my mind. I had to ‘destroy’ that Sombra dude. I had no clue who it was and where I could find him. But of course, thanks to my powers, I easily did.

After driving on my baby for a few miles… Oh yeah, I didn’t tell you, I wasn’t the only one who had a transformation. It seemed I was linked to my baby, because it changed too. It was a more aggressive look, with bones on the side, and fire escaping from the wheels. It suited well the monster I had become, quite frankly.

I arrived in what seemed to be an old graveyard but I could feel the evil forces here. I drove towards the entrance of the old dilapidated church in the center of the graveyard, not too far away from the city, I stopped my bike and walked towards the entrance, and without thinking twice, I entered.

I saw three men, standing at the other side of the church, they turned immediately when they heard me, and I could see them clearly even in the dark.

The man standing at the left was the smallest one, he had long dark hair that seemed to be wet, dark eyes and a half smile showing his rotten teeth.

The one standing on the right was bald, he was the one who looked the more human of the three. He had a scared look when he saw me.

And, there was the man standing in the middle, I could feel he was much powerful that the two others, when he saw me, he raised an eyebrow, a neutral expression on his face.

He had a dark skin, dark eyes, and dark long hair. He was the tallest of the three, and just looking at him made me feel uneasy. Well, it made Spitfire uneasy, the thing I had become didn’t care less.

I didn’t have to think much to know what those three were. They were demons.

“Look what my father brought us.” The demon in the middle said with a chuckle, looking down on me. “His own watchdog.”

“Sombra!” The bald one said in a hush tone, “It’s… It’s the Ghostrider! We should leave!”

It made Sombra laugh, a dark creepy laugh. “Don’t be afraid.” He said, looking at the bald demon. “Just looking at it made me realize Mephisto must be desperate.”

“What should we do?” The one with the wet hair asked when he saw me walking toward them.

Sombra stepped in, “Welcome, Ghostrider!” He greeted me with a wide smirk, “I know what my father told you, but listen to me before doing something you might regret.”

I didn’t know why, but I stopped. He smiled when he saw that I was listening to him.

“It is a shame really, so much power at your disposal, and yet, you’re doing my father’s dirty work.” He walked slowly towards me, “I have a more interesting offer for you. Your power can be a great help for us. What do you say, wanna drop the old man and join us? You won’t regret it, I promise.” He asked to me, with the exact same smile his father used to wear.

He was standing just a few feet away from me.

I could feel the energy emanating from him. I was standing in front of pure evil. I didn’t know why, but I raised my finger, pointing in his direction. And I said the first thing that came on my mind.

“You,” I said, with a voice that wasn’t mine. “Guilty.”

Sombra frowned and sighed, looking at his feet. “What a shame, really… I guess we’ll show you what we did to your predecessor then.”

I was going to walk toward him, to do what? I don’t know. But I couldn’t, my feet wouldn’t move. I looked at them and saw a pair of hands gripping my feet from a puddle of water that wasn’t here before. Then I saw a face in the water, the face of the demon with rotten teeth, smiling at me.

I felt something wrong and looked in front of me. The bald one was standing there, and punched me with so much strength that it should have killed me in an instant.

I flew toward the church and landed in the giant crucifix that was standing on the altar. It dropped on the ground with a deafening noise coming from the chains that used to hold it dropping on the ground.

“Wallow, Gressil, get rid of him… Or her, whatever.” Sombra said with a gesture of his hand, watching from the entrance of the church.

“Should be easy.” Gressil -the bald one- said, having his confidence back.

He walked toward me and grabbed me by the collar. He tried to punch me in the face… In the skull. But I grabbed his hand just when it was going to reach me, and I punched him in the gust, sending him right in the wall.

He gets up not without difficulties and stood next to Wallow, the one with long hair.

Wallow disappeared in a puddle and Gressil ran toward me trying to punch me, but I easily dodge every hit and send him backward with a stroke of my forearm. I felt the other one in my back and I turned around to grab his face with my skinless hand and slammed him on the ground. That coward went back to hide himself in that little pathetic puddle of his.

Wasn’t gonna get screwed twice by the same trick.

Something hit me on my back and made me stumble, I turned my gaze in that direction and saw Gressil who punched me right in the face. I made a step back, right in the puddle of water where Wallow was hidden and he grabbed my foot once again.

Gressil used that opportunity to run into me and send me a few meters away. I landed in a heap of chains with so much noise it could’ve awakened the dead, and in the meantime, I didn’t feel something falling from my pocket.

I wasn’t hurt badly but if I wanted to defeat those two, I’ll have to be smarter than them, not just rush straight in. Then, as I stood up, I saw a long metallic chain right next to me. It gave me an idea. If I couldn’t take them both in hand-to-hand combat, I’ll have to keep them at distance.

I quickly grabbed it when I saw Gressil heading in my way and lunched it in his direction. He dodged it with a side step and laughed, “What was that?”

I didn’t reply, instead, I concentrated and, just thinking about it, my chain caught fire instantly. If a skeleton could smirk, I would’ve, seeing that goofball head of his. As he watched with astonishment, he said “She’s way more powerful than the previous one.”

I launched it upon my head and I started to swirl it above us. It made a vortex of flame that started to grow more and more as I swirled it, the temperature in the church heating up.

Gressil didn’t move, he just watched with stupefaction, but lucky for him his friend jumped in his way and helped him dodge the attack as I slammed the chain on the ground, resulting in a deafening earthquake. The wall of the church started to fall down and everything was caught on fire.

I was standing in the middle of all that, glaring at those two. At that moment, I remember asking myself if maybe, I was more a demon than them.

I walked towards them as Gressil was getting up. I launched my all fired up chain in his direction and immobilized him with it, the chain was around him from head to toe.

He screamed in pain as he was burning alive, and I just watched it quietly. I was killing someone, and I didn’t care.

In fact, I enjoyed it.

I was such enjoying his screams of pain that I didn’t felt Wallow hit me in the back with a demonic strength.

But I didn’t move. I just turned my gaze in his direction and he looked at me with big eyes. I kicked him in the guts sending him backward, still holding on my chain that was burning his little friend.

Then, I launched Gressil right on top of Wallow. It resulted in a flame explosion, heating up a bit more the temperature.

The walls still standing were melting, and a normal human being should be dead just from the heat emitting from me.

As I watched in their direction, I realized that half of Gressil’s body had turned into dust. I killed him without realizing it.

I put the chain around me, dissipating the fire on it. I walked slowly toward the remaining demon. He screamed in terror when he saw me walking toward him and he tried to crawl away.

I grabbed him by the throat and lift him up.

“Look at me.” I said while he was trying to get away from my grip.

“No please, no!” He screamed and begged in fear, “Sombra please!”

I didn’t have to look behind me to know that Sombra was long gone.

“Look at me in the eyes.” I repeated myself.

Then, when I looked in his eyes, I saw… Everything. Every bad thing he had done in his entire life. I was reading his soul. I saw all the people he had hurt, all the pain he caused. And I turned it against him. I continued until I felt the life slowly leaving his glare, until I dropped him on the ground, dead.

“Woaw,” Bruce said, “What was that?”

“With time, I called it the penance stare,” Spitfire replied, taking a hit from the cigarette she had, “When I lock my eyes with an opponent, I’m imposing him every negative actions, sensation and behavior, from sins to the pain of others that they have ever committed in their lifetime. It’s my most powerful capacity.” She explained.

“It’s… a bit scary.” Dr Banner admitted.

“Yeah… I know.” Spitfire replied, not daring to look at him in the eyes.

“And what happened after that?”

“I don’t really remember… Sombra was gone… I left the church and… The next thing I remembered was me waking up in my bed.”

“This Sombra you’re talking about, he’s Mephisto’s son?” Banner asked.

“Yeah, he was.”

“Was?”

Spitfire got a fake chuckle, “I killed this son of a bitch not long after that.”

“I see…”

They both stood quietly, laying their arms on the fence. Spitfire couldn’t tell why she was telling him all of this, he wasn’t her friend but… She could sense he was genuinely here to help her. He wasn’t judging her and he was understanding. With that thought in mind, something tilted her.

“Who are you?” She asked.

He raised his eyebrow at the sudden question, “I’m Doctor Bruce Banner, I already told you th-”

“Not that.” She shakes her head, “I don’t think anyone might be able to understand me. Yet, you are, so it seems to me that you went through something… Similar?”

It seemed she hit the nail on the head because he frowned at that statement, and sighed. “Yeah… Similar isn’t the right term though, I’ve never faced a demon in my life.” He finished in a chuckle.

“That’s what I thought.” She said, turning herself so she could rest her back on the fence, “So, care to explain to me?”

He stayed quiet for a moment, then, when Spitfire was going to tell him to forget it, he spoke, “When I’m angry I…” He turned away his gaze, “Transform myself into that… monster.”

Spitfire grinned at that remark, “So, it seems pretty similar to me.”

“Not really, because you’ve said that you have learned how to control it.” He stated, “I don’t. Even after all these years, when the monster comes out, I…” He didn’t finish his sentence, instead he greeted his teeth.

Spitfire put her hand on his shoulder, taking him aback by the sudden display of affection, “I know the feeling dude. But I’m sure one day, you will.”

He raised his head to look at her and asked, “You really think so?”

“I’m pretty sure.” She said, a grin on her face.

They stood there, looking at each other for a minute before they both turned their head away, she tried to hide away her blush, and he tried to hide his. But he smiled nonetheless and said, “Thank you.”

“Meh, don’t mention it.”

They got interrupted by Bruce’s phone ringing, he excused himself with a gesture of his hand and took the call. “Yes?”

Spitfire tried to listen to the conversation but she couldn’t hear clearly what was said on the other end of the line.

“Really?” Banner asked, a surprised look on his face, getting Spitfire’s attention. “Yes I… I’ll tell her right away… Thanks miss Hill.” He finished, hanging up the phone.

“What was that.”

He swallowed slowly, before looking into Spitfire’s eyes. “So, it’s true…” He just said.

“What?”

“He’s back.” He said calmly, closing his eyes.

She known all too well of who he was talking of, but she asked anyway, “W-who?”

“Mephisto.” He said, Spitfire felt suddenly very cold. “You have to come with me.” He said, starting to walk toward the elevator.

She followed him quietly, and they both entered the elevator. It automatically started to going downstairs, a much lower floor from where Spitfire’s room was. When the elevator opened, they were in some sort of computer room, with a lot of agents working there.

‘So, no one here knows what sleeping is uh?’ She asked herself.

Bruce resumed his walk, Spitfire following him closely. “Where are we?” She asked.

“This is where our agents work on finding any anomaly that has, or will, happen.” He explains, still walking.

She followed him until he stopped next to a girl working on her computer, she smiled when she saw Doctor Banner arrived and greeted hil. “Doctor Banner! Good morning.”

“Good morning,” He greeted calmly, “Maria Hill told me you’ve got something for us.”

“Yes,” She looked at her screen and clicked on her mouse, a map of the country appeared on the screen with a small area highlighted in red. “Magic has been felt in this particular area, we asked Strange about it, and he said it definitely was demonic magic.”

“So, nothing to do with the magic we’ve found in Canterlot?” Banner asked.

“No, the magic felt in Canterlot was a light magic, not dark like this one.” She explained, with another click on her mouse, a window opened with some graphs Spitfire had a hard time to understand. “See? The graphs here show us that whatever was the magic used in Canterlot a few months ago, it isn’t as bad as this one.”

“And what about this guy who like to use magic whenever he feels like it?”

“That guy in Canterlot with a scary mask? Yeah, I thought it was him at first but Strange said he wasn’t a threat to us, and after some calculations, the magic he used is way more different than this one.”

“Hmmm, I see.” Bruce banner seemed to think for a moment, before turning to look at Spitfire. “We should go there to see by ourselves.”

“Wait, what?” Spitfire wasn’t sure if this was a great idea. “Wait, have you any idea what this guy is capable of?”

She realized her hands started to shiver, and she hide them behind her back, it didn’t go unnoticed by Bruce, “Don’t worry, if it’s getting out of control, we’ll get the hell out of there.”

“Poor choice of words, and I still think it’s a bad idea.” She said.

“Listen,” Bruce started, “I know you must be afraid of him, but here we think that, if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things.”

She sighed, she knew he was right. “Okay then, let’s go.”

He smiled in approval and gesture her to follow him to the elevator.

“Where are we going now?” She asked.

“To the Quinjet.” He replied.

“The what now?”

After a quick shower and getting dressed up, Spitfire followed Bruce in a hangar adjacent to the building they were in.

He leaded her to a huge and sophisticated jet right in the middle of the hangar.

“Okay that’s bad-ass.” Spitfire admitted, crossing her arms, when she saw the jet he talked about.

“It possesses two large, angle-adjustable rotors, one housed in each wing, which grants the aircraft its vertical take-off and landing capabilities. It also has adjustable wingtips that can be angled down to intensify the lift of the wing rotors and modify the movement of the ship.” Banner showed and explained to her as they stood in front of it. “And of course, it is heavily armed.” He added.

Spitfire frowned and said, “I see you guys can afford some shit.”

Banner chuckled while scratching the back of his head, “Yes we do.”

He gestured her to follow him inside and she did. The inside was more spacious that it looked from the outside. There were two pilots on the cockpit who greeted them with a sign of their hands, and a red head woman sitting on one of the seats. She was looking at something on a tablet, she didn’t raise her head to look who arrived as she spoke, “You take your time.” She said sharply.

“Good morning you too, Natasha.” Banner replied, sighing and rolling his eyes.

The obvious animosity between the two of them was obvious to Spitfire.

Natasha raised her head and glared at him, “It’s agent Romanoff for you.” Then she only noticed Spitfire and got up to shake her hand. “Hi, you must be our devil’s favorite.”

Spitfire frowned but shake her hand nonetheless, “Yeah I am.”

“Perfect, we should get going then.” She turned around and called the pilots, “Boys, we’re off.”

“Wait, she’s coming with us?” Spitfire asked.

“Believe me, it’ll be a mistake to not take her with us.”

Spitfire frowned got deeper, she didn’t like this woman, she can already tell.

“You can transform yourself into some kind of demon, that’s right?” Natasha asked, looking back at her tablet.

“Yeah, something like that.” Spitfire said, taking a sit next to Bruce Banner, at the other side of where Natasha was sitting. She crossed her arms and scowled her, “And what can you do?”

Natasha raised her eyes to look at her as she spoke, “Keep you both alive.” She said before returning to whatever was on her tablet.

‘It’s going to be a fun ride.’

The bridge of the Quinjet closed and it started to take off through the opening on the roof. Spitfire quickly puts her seatbelt on, she always hated flying.

“So, maybe we can use this time wisely and take advantage of the ride to talk a bit more about you?” Banner asked to Spitfire.

Spitfire pouted but asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Well, you said that you killed Sombra, but how did it happen?”

“You see…”

A few days after I killed those two morrons, Mephisto came to me. He explained to me why he wanted me to kill him.

I owe you this. He had dared to say to me.

He said that his son wanted to wake up an ancient demonic entity of some sort, more powerful than Mephisto himself. Honestly, I still don’t know what it is, and he told me that Sombra wanted to control it to take over the world. He didn’t want that to happen because he said, and I quote:

I love this world, I don’t want it to be destroyed.

Even today, I can’t tell if it was a joke or not. If you want my opinion, I just think that Mephisto was scared of his son, even if he wasn’t showing it. Anyway, as the days goes by, I learned how to control my transformation.

First of all, I cannot transform in the daylight. I must be in a dark place or it must be night if I want to be able to transform myself. It seemed that the sunlight was canceling my powers.

I also learned how to transform on command, but when I’m surrounded by evil, I automatically transform myself, I can’t help it.

I was beginning to control it fully, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. And I also was beginning to… Like it.

I was in my apartment, on my couch. I raised my hand in front of me and concentrate myself. I imagined myself with fire in my hand, and slowly, a small flame appeared.

“Yes!” I shouted.

But a knock on my door distracted me and I sent the flame right on my couch. I jumped in fear and started to panic. I heard another knock on the door.

“Spitfire? It’s me.” I heard Fleetfoot’s voice through the door, coming from the hall. “Can you let me in?”

“In a minute!” I shouted as my couch was on fire.

I concentrate myself and raised both of my hand, and slowly, I drawn the flame in my hands before they disappeared, leaving only a burned couch.

“Spitfire?” I heard Fleefoot who was getting more and more impatient.

“I said I was coming!” I yelled. Breathing slowly, I walked toward the door, and opened it a bit just enough so she can see my face. “Hi.”

“Hi?” She said, angry. “That’s all you’ve got to say? You didn’t come at the bar when you said you will, and I haven’t heard from you in days, and all you got to say to me is, hi?”

“Humm, yes?” I tried.

“Let me in.” She demands.

“Listen, now is not the right t-”

She didn’t care of what I had to say, she pushed the door open and walked past me. I closed the door and followed her into the living room. “Why does it smell like something had burned here?” She asked on her way in.

“I have no idea what you’re talking-”

“What the fuck happened here?”

“-about.” I finished.

She stood in front of my couch with big eyes, before looking at me with a worried look. “Spitfire…” She started, “What is happening to you?”

I wanted to say nothing but she knows when I’m lying, so I just turned my gaze away and bit my lower lip.

“You wouldn’t believe me…” I said.

“Try me.” She said, dropping herself in the nearest chair, crossing her legs.

“Okay…” I took a deep breath and let it all out, “I couldn’t come because I… made a pact.”

“A pact?”

“A pact, a deal, call it like you want.”

She nodded slowly with a questionable glare, “Go on.”

“I sold my soul… To the devil.”

“You… Sold your soul?” She asked, in a way that proved me that she didn’t believed me at all.

“Yeah, to the devil… I work for him.” I continued, even if I knew it was pointless.

She nodded and gestured me to continue.

“So, when the night came I… transform myself into that… Monster.”

“What kind of monster?” She asked me.

“Well, a sort of skeleton but my skull is…” I sighed, “My skull is on fire.”

“So,” She said, “You’re telling me that, you couldn’t come because, you made a pact with the devil of all people, and when it’s the night, you transform yourself into a monster skeleton… on fire?”

I rolled my eyes and turned away, “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, you’re obviously don’t believe me.”

“No, I… I believe you.” She said, getting up to face me.

I raised my eyebrow as I asked her, “You do?”

“Well, I believe that you’re believing that.” She said, her worried look back on her face.

I frowned and coldly asked to her, “And what is that supposed to mean?”

She sighed and put her hand on my shoulder, “You need help Spitfire. Your drinking is getting worse and…”

I pushed away her hand and yelled at her, “See? That’s why I didn’t tell you!”

She frowned back, “And you were expecting me to believe all of this?”

“You wanted the truth? There it is, it’s your call to decide if you’re believing it or not!”

Fleetfoot sighed and grabbed her purse, “You know what, I quit.” She said, calmly, “You obviously don’t want my help, and to be honest with you… I’m tired of this. Come back to me if you want help, until then, I’ll leave you to your… fabulations.” She said walking toward the door.

“Yeah, get the fuck out.” I said coldly, “I don’t need you anyway!”

She didn’t reply as I heard the door close behind her.

I was alone again. The only friend who was worried about me… And I pushed her away. Like I always do.

The next day I woke up with a hangover, like I often do. I slowly sat on my half-burned couch, and grumbled at the vision of it.

“Ugh, I guess I’ll have to buy another one.” I said, rubbing the edges of my head. “Perfect, exactly what I needed... Fuck me.”

No need to explain that I was starting to getting low on money, and if I still wanted to have a roof upon my head, I’ll have to quickly find a…

“Job.” I grumbled with a frown.

Just thinking about it wasn’t putting me in a great mood. I got up and forgot my phone was on me, so it fell on my foot. I didn’t hurt much but it irritates me more than I already was, “Ugh!”

It wasn’t going to be a good day, that was for sure.

I entered my bathroom and took a quick shower before heading to my kitchen, pouring myself a cup of coffee. I took my phone and checked out any notification and saw I missed a call from Fleetfoot.

“Hum? She didn’t leave any message? That’s strange.” I said to myself, it was strange, whenever I missed a call from her, she always leaves a message.

I just shrugged and put my phone back in my pocket. I was pretty sure that she tried to call me to say that I should accept her help or something like that, even if her departure last night was pretty rough, I was certain that she wasn’t going to let it go just like that, I knew her and she was almost as stubborn as I was.

I took the remote laying on the ground next to my couch and just when I was going to start the television, I heard a rough knock on my door. “Miss Spitfire? Open up, NYPD!” Said someone on the other end of the door.

“The police?” I asked myself walking toward the door. “The fuck do they want?”

I opened the door and wore my greatest innocent smile, “Hello officers, what can I do for you?”

I didn’t have any time to react that one of the four policemen standing in front of my apartment door tackled me on the wall. “Ouch! What the f-”

I could’ve easily pushed him away, but I was smarter than attacking police officers.

“Miss Spitfire,” Started one of them while the other two handcuffed me, “You are under arrest, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to-”

It went by so quickly. I got arrested, got forced to get inside the police car, and I was taken to the police station. The policemen totally ignoring my questions the whole ride.

So here I was, sitting on a chair inside the interrogation room. Infront of me was two cops standing there, one was sitting in front of me, the other one was standing next to him, arms crossed, his gaze glaring daggers at me.

So, it was going to be good cop bad cop uh?

The one who was sit took something from his pocket and let out a pack of smoke, he took one and handed one to me with the lighter. I took it but didn’t thanks him for it.

I lit it up and took a puff, then he started, “Miss Spitfire, do you know why you’re here?”

“Are you fucking serious? I’m asking this since I got dragged out of my home.”

“You’re suspected of murder.” He said calmly to me.

“What?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Guys I…”

“Cut the shit Spitfire!” Barked the other policeman, “We’ve found this next to two burned unidentified bodies!” He said, throwing something on the table.

My eyes went wide in horror when I saw my wallet laying on the table. Dumb as I was, I didn’t even notice it fell from my pocket during the fight.

Seeing my look, the officer who was sitting in front of me sighed, “Just seeing your look tells us everything, Spitfire.” He said calmly.

“I-”

Once again, I got interrupted. But this time, it was from someone who had opened the door and entered calmly in the interrogation room.

It was a tall woman, dark skin, red nice hair. She was wearing an expensive suit, and seeing she was wearing a pair of sunglasses with a white cane, I presumed she was blind.

She walked slowly toward the table and the officer standing barked at her, “And who are you miss?”

She didn’t reply to him, instead she stood next to me and said, “Miss Spitfire, don’t say another word.” She then took something out from her pocket and gave it to me, “My name is Tempest Shadow, and I am your lawyer.”

Reading the card she gave to me, I could read,

‘Nelson & Shadow, Attorneys at law.’

“Tempest Shadow?” Bruce Banner asked, raising an eyebrow, “Why aren’t I surprised.”

“You know her?” Spitfire asked.

She heard a chuckled coming frow Natasha’s direction, she turned her gaze to face her, “It seems that every time we’re working on a meta case, she’s somewhere in the equation.” She said while smiling, finding this situation funny.

“Yes,” Banner said, replying to Spitfire’s question, “We… know her. She helped us a few times.”

“I knew that she knew more than she was telling me.” Spitfire said in hush, frowning.

“So, what happened next?” Natasha asked, getting an interrogating glare from Banner and an annoyed one from Spitfire. “What? I want to know, it’s a nice distraction, besides, we still have an hour of flying.”

Spitfire ignored her and drew her attention back to Bruce Banner, “She helped me buy some time, she said that it didn’t mean anything that my wallet was on the crime scene, that I could have been there before it happened. Of course, they didn’t believe her, but in the meantime, they had to release me, fault of proof. More fear than pain it seemed.”

“So, they just let you go like that?” Natasha asked, “Isn’t that strange?”

“Well yeah, they let me go, but I was under surveillance and interdiction to leave the city.”

First thing while I got out of the police station was to call Fleetfoot. But she wasn’t picking up, so I tried again, and again but every time I ended up on her voicemail.

“Hi it’s Fleetfoot! I’m not here right now but leave a message after the bip!”

“Hi Fleet’, it’s me, I need to talk to you right now, I’m heading to your place. If you hear this, call me back.” I said after the famous bip, ending up the call.

I took a taxi there, I didn’t have the courage to go home, take my bike and then cross half the city to her place.

As I arrived to her place, a nice white house in the suburb of the city, I knock on the door and waited for a response that never came.

“Fleetfoot! It’s me, Spitfire!” I called, knocking harder on the door. “Please let me in, we have to talk and I don’t have much time.” It was true, it was a matter of hours before I’ll be arrested for good this time, because you know… I actually killed those two guys, even if they weren’t human. “I’m losing patience Fleet’!”

But no one came. I tried to call her again, and of course she didn’t reply, it was only then, a strange feeling was filling my guts.

I pushed the door handle and gently opened the door. “I’m coming in okay?” I called.

It was strange, all the blinds were closed, the atmosphere was heavy, and the smell…

“Fleet’?” I called, walking slowly in her house, I walked toward the kitchen and checked out if someone was here but it was empty, same for the living room. So, I walked toward the stairs and climbed them up, every step I make, more and more worry I became.

I headed to her bathroom, and quietly open the door, just letting my head in. “Fleety?” No one.

I walked toward the only room left. I put my hand on the handle and breathed slowly. Just by putting my hand on it, I could feel that I wasn’t going to like what I will find there.

Concerned about my friend, I opened it calling her, “Fleetfoot?”

But it was so dark I couldn’t see anything, so I reached the light switch and pushed it, “Okay that’s bett-”

That’s where I saw it.

No Fleetfoot wasn’t there. Nobody was there.

I couldn’t describe what I felt at this moment. It was a mix of being worry, being angry, and the urge to kill anyone who dared to touch a single hair of my friend. I turned my back to this room that I wanted to leave as soon as possible and started to run.

I needed to quickly find and save her as a realized that the clock was ticking.

As I run out of her house, I closed my eyes and saw it again, her room… Her bed covered in blood, and written on the walls with that same blood was,

‘She’ll die if you try.’

Now it was personal. It wasn’t just a mission that the devil needed me to do.

And I’ll show that Sombra that he messed up with the wrong girl.

With the wrong Ghostrider.

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