"Nice bike." Yelena whistled.
"Thanks, made it myself." I said with a grin as the three of us walked over to Lilith.
"We don't have to go far, just out of sight — do ya'll mind getting a little cozy?"
Nat raised a brow at me, her classic, 'What are you hiding?' look.
Yelena shrugged, "As long as I don't get the butt-end again."
I threw my leg over the seat, nudging my head for them to get on.
"Sorry, no helmets, messes with my hair."
Nat snorted and waved Yelena to get on behind me.
"Yay!" Yelena exclaimed, smoothly swinging herself behind me. Her hands wrapped around my chest with no hesitation, her chin pressed against my shoulder.
"Ooo, you smell nice, is that — lavender?"
I chuckled, "You've got a good nose."
Nat sighed at our interaction, before hopping on and hugging Yelena. I started the bike, enjoying the hums of appreciation the sisters gave me as it purred to life.
"I want one." Yelena mused.
"Yeah? Hmm… maybe if you tell me embarrassing stories about Natasha."
"Hey!" Nat shouted from behind us. Yelena grinned, "Deal! There was this one time, when we were kids, she ate so much Macaroni that she—AH! OW!" Yelena yelped, feeling Nat's fingers pinching her waist.
Nat's voice was low, dangerous, and the Force informed me she was serious. "Yelena? Not. A. Word."
Yelena sighed, "But the bike…" She said with a pout. I couldn't help but laugh as we sped off into the cool night.
As we rode away from the suburbs, I began to feel Yelena's fingers subtly rub my stomach, tentatively tracing my abs.
"Yelena?" I said with a slight turn of my head.
"What? It's like hugging a steel-wall, kinda hard not to." She said in her defense. An embarrassed smile bubbled to my lips and I just shook my head. Still feeling her fingers caressing my stomach.
Ten minutes later, on a desolate stretch of road I turned my head over.
"Are you two ready?"
"Ready for what?" They both asked.
I smirked, reaching my hand out in front of me and swiping through the air.
A space door opened right in front of us, and I felt Yelena's hands clench around my waist as we drove straight through it.
Both of the trained assassins yelped as we slipped through the portal, their shock pulsing through the Force.
The empty stretch of road vanished as I drove us straight into my base. With a screech of Lilith's tires, I swung the bike into a drifting stop.
I shut the bike off, and turned to see their stunned faces.
"Welcome to my humble super-secret lair~~" I said with smug grin.
Yelena and Nat just stared at me, eyes slowly peeling away to massive warehouse of a room around us, then the runes covering the surface, their mouths opening and closing like fish outta water.
"Uh… are you gonna let me go?" I asked Yelena, who just turned and stared at me.
Eventually they came out of their stupor. Looking around the rather bland base like tourists. I left them to their awe, ignoring the hundreds of questions probably stewing around their heads.
"Hey Nex, run this through Gene-E will you? I need enough to gas a stadium out."
[Gotcha.] Nex said aloud, her voice turning Nat and Yelena's heads.
"Who is that?" Nat asked, walking over and peering into Gene-E with me.
I flipped a thumb over to the center of the room. "Nexus, or Nex. My lovely assistant and partner in crime."
[I didn't choose the criminal life, I was born into it.] She said solemnly, making me chuckle. "True, it's a family business y'know?"
[If by business, you mean watching you ransack the world in a kleptomanic haze, then sure.]
I shrugged, "Same—same, how's it looking?" I asked watching the Red Dust spinning under a number of scanning lights and runes.
[At first glance? It's a neurological agent, some kind of nano-formulated reversal chemical that targets and resets multiple brain regions through epigenetic, neurotransmitter, and enzyme-based reactions. It shouldn't be too hard to replicate, but you'll need to go "shopping". I'll send a list to your phone.]
"Thanks Nex."
[Anytime.] She said quite literally.
I turned to Nat, her eyes locked on the movement of the micro-lab arms.
"This will probably take a day or so, do you two want to… y'know shower or something?"
Nat gave me a side-ways smirk, "Are you saying we smell bad?" Yet before I could step into her trap Yelena chimed in, saving me from certain death.
"Oh! I definitely smell bad, like a dead cat." She said sniffing her arms and Nat rolled her head with a small smile.
"Do you mind me asking where we are?"
"Queens."
"Queens…?"
"Yeah."
"We went from Budapest to Queens in less than a second."
"Yup."
"Are you going to explain how?"
"Does it matter?"
"…Not really."
"So don't worry about it, you'll eventually learn about it." I said with a hint of mystery.
Nat tilted her head, eyes trying to dig into my soul.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I just wriggled my brows at her, making her click her tongue.
"Come on, I gotta go shopping for some of the chemical compounds, but we might as well get you two fed and cleaned, can't fight on an empty stomach y'know."
Nat snorted, "What are we? Stray animals you picked up?"
"More like a new friend stuck between a rock and a hard place." I mused.
"Why?" She suddenly asked.
I titled a brow at her. "Why am I helping you?"
She nodded, her eyes never breaking contact.
I shrugged, "Why not? You're cool, fun to work with, pretty genuine even if you keep up a constant serious facade. I'm not one to go out of my way to help strangers, but when someone I know asks for help? I'll help… and I really do have a soft spot for pretty women." I admitted.
Nat was silent for a moment, her eyes turning to the swirling Red Dust. She could faintly see her reflection stare back at her. "That's going to get you killed one day." She muttered.
I tossed my hands into the air in an exaggerated declaration. "At least I'll die knowing what I'm about!"
Nat just cupped her forehead and shook her head.
Yelena and Nat followed me out of the base into my house. The former of which immediately launched herself onto my couch with a satisfied groan.
"Okay, I'll be back in a bit, guest showers are upstairs on the left, feel free to use whatever I guess." Nat thanked me, while Yelena just let out another muffled groan.
—
After making a short trip through a number of pharmaceutical companies, hospital depots, and university research labs I stepped back into my living room.
I was about to shout that I was back until I suddenly held my tongue. On my kitchen island I saw two half-eaten bowls of macaroni, one of the bowls doused—drownedeven—in sriracha.
My television was on, a soft, wisened voice narrating over a pride of lions relaxing below the shade of a gum-tree.
A gentle smile graced my lips. I saw Nat and hugging Yelena in her arms like she was liable to vanish at a moments notice, both of them dead asleep.
I walked over, pulling a blanket from my Storage and levitated it over them — with admittedly more tender care than I knew I had.
I turned, returning to my basement feeling their contentedness through the Force.
"Got the goods Nex."
[Oh yeah you got that good stuff?] She replied, and I swear I could hear her smirking.
"Where are you learning this stuff?" I asked with an exasperated sigh, shoving all of my pilfered chemicals into Gene-E.
[The internet.]
"Oh." Duh.
While Nex began production on more Red Dust I stepped into my Spatial Dimension. My eyes scanned around me until I found the Quinjet I had permanently borrowed so long ago.
I lowered the ramp and walked into the small cabin. I closed my eyes, sinking into the Force, spreading it around me — searching with intent.
The reason I hadn't bothered taking it for a joyride since acquiring it was because of the trackers.
The Force hummed as I used Mechu-Deru to delve into the jet's circuitry, tracing along the components until I found not one, not two, but seven trackers all deeply inserted into the jet's guts.
I clenched my fists, Force crushing all of the trackers simultaneously. Now that the stealth jet was finally a true stealth jet, I began inscribing a few illusion runes into the chassis, linking them to a Vibranium battery I awkwardly attached in the middle of the cabin.
Once done I stepped back into my base and brought the jet out, attaching the battery to my MTAR. The illusion runes powered on, morphing the dark-metal into a matte white.
Its not the best disguise… but hopefully they don't notice.
[Do we have canisters for the reversal agent?]
"Mmm… no not yet, but I have a few flash bangs I stole from Fury. Think that'll do?"
I really need to make a fabricator for Nex.
[Yeah that'll do, just put them in Gene-E. Also, Natasha and Yelena are awake.]
I nodded. "Thanks Nex."
—
"Sleep well?" I asked as I walked into the living room.
"Like a baby~" Yelena hummed, half-hanging off the couch. Nat sat beside her, one of my random coffee table books in her hands.
"Thats because you are a baby." She said without taking her eyes off the pages.
Yelena sent a lazy swat at her, which Nat easily deflected, eyes still on the book. "Rude."
"Well, everything should be ready in less than an hour, I also got you guys a ride for your escapades. I'd like it back eventually though, it was a gift." I lied through my teeth.
Nat closed the book, standing up and stretching to the sky. "Thank you Riven, really."
Yelena brows creased, her eyes flicking between Nat and me. Her head lifted slightly a pout on her lips. "Waaaait what? You're not coming with us?"
I tilted my head at her. "Do you want me to come?"
Yelena mouth pursed, then she looked over to Nat, "...do we?"
Nat gently shook her head. "Riven's helped us enough little one. This isn't his past—it's ours."
Yelena just pouted, "Fiiiine, but you know having a guy who can teleport would be pretty nice~"
I smiled at her. "You can come back here whenever you want Yelena, I mean it, my guest rooms are literally never in use." I said with a sad sigh.
"Really?"
"Yeah, whenever you guys are done feel free to crash and remember you can always just text me if you really fuck up. Here." I handed them the same Token I gave Tao.
"These are linked directly to me, they can't communicate anything, but if you're deep in the shit, grab it and scream into it with as much emotion as you can."
Nat examined the enchanted Vibranium token with curious eyes. "Scream into it? Have you heard of a phone?"
I gave looked at her in mock pain. "This allows me to lock onto your location no matter where you are, theoretically. And no, it's not always active."
"Thanks!" Yelena said, putting the token into her vest's many pockets.
I brought them both back into the base with a space door. Yelena let out an impressed whistle when she saw the Quinjet.
Nat grinned, "You really know what the ladies want Riven." She hummed, before her head tilted a little as she examined the all-white Quinjet.
"But… where did you get a Quinjet?"
I cleared my throat. "Like I said, it was gift."
"Uh huh..."
I quickly turned away before she could read me, grabbing the Red Dust flashbangs and a couple of Red Dust injectors.
"Flashbangs? Thanks I guess." Yelena murmured.
"They're filled with the agent." I explained.
"Oooh, that's cool."
"I guess that's that, anything else you want?"
Nat shook her head, turning to the Quinjet. "No, this is plenty. Can you drop us back in Budapest?"
—
The three of us stood in a desolate stretch of grassland, the sky above us overcast and dreary. The Quinjet hummed beside us as Yelena let out a sad sigh.
"haaaah… let's go get dad, I guess."
Nat gave me a smile, and I felt her gratitude through the Force. It smelt like lilies and somehow the color lilac. "We'll see you soon Riven, and I promise to bring it back in one piece."
"Please, like I said it was a gift from a dear friend." I pleaded and she scoffed turning and entering the jet.
I looked over at Yelena, seeing her stare up at the grey clouds above. A faint scent of bitter old coffee flowed to me through the Force — reluctance?
She turned to me, striding over with mechanical steps and wrapped me in a hug that locked my arms by my sides.
"Thanks, see you soon." She quickly said before striding up into the jet.
The ramp began to close just as I heard Nat teasing Yelena.
The Quinjet's baby-blue thrusters ignited and it lifted into the air. I saw Nat wave at me from the cockpit before she gunned it into the sky.
I stayed in the field long after the jet vanished into the clouds. There was a fading scent in the Force around me, clinging to my chest with an odd warmth.
Roses, with faint hints of vanilla.