Chapter Text
Gunshots rang over and over in his ears as Mason’s high pitched scream echoed in the room, his own guttural cry the only sound cutting through. He attempted to run towards him, to help him, to save him, but arms wrapped around him from behind, yanking him back before any significant movement could be made.
“NO!” He screamed, throat burning and voice cracking. He fought restlessly against the tight hands grabbing at him but nothing worked, he was stuck in one place, watching as Mason got ripped apart by bullets clutching at his skin.
“No ! No please ! Please, you gotta let me help him ! I can help him- I swear !” He cried out, voice shaking and heart-wrenching. His eyes felt like fire as the tears ran down his face, entering his opened mouth.
Dark foam suddenly wrapped around his neck, spreading up on his face as he choked on his own cries. Claws grew into his skin, blood pouring out quickly as a sharp and unbearable pain spread across his body. The foam curled around his eyeballs, and tore them away, the gushy sound of flesh mixed with blood imprinting itself in his mind.
GASP
Sweat dripped from his forehead as he looked around his room in distress, breathing ragged.
“Shit…” He whispered to himself, swallowing hard. He ran a hand through his hair, flexing his jaw and gripping a few strands to calm himself down.
He let out a shaky breath as his breathing shifted to a less worrying pace. He let his hand slide down his face before he pushed himself up, deciding to distract himself from the disturbing nightmare by going to eat breakfast.
Boss hadn’t woken him up, which was surprising since he usually does, but he shrugged it off and slipped on his binder with an old, loose, long-sleeved grey band t-shirt that reached his knuckles. Then he slipped on some random black, baggy jeans that were on his floor, attaching his tactical belt as he pushed the door open with his hip.
He nibbled on the tip of his middle finger as he walked down the stairs, heading towards the kitchen. On his way he passed a few coworkers that only gave him worried looks, to which he raised an eyebrow. His gaze followed one of them, and when he looked back in front of him, Ayla was standing there, a small tilt of her head visible.
“Oh, hey.” He simply said, letting his hand drop to his side as he mimicked her tilted face.
“Hey.” She answered with a small smile. “Are you… okay?” She then carefully asked.
That earned a confused look from Elijah.
Is it obvious that I had a nightmare ?...
“Uh, yeah… Why ?” His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Ayla was always careful when asking how he was doing, which he appreciated, but it felt particular this time.
“Just checking… There’s breakfast in the kitchen if you want.” Her head straightened, no longer leaning to the right.
He nodded in response, watching as she started leaving, before remembering.
“Wait-” She turned around with a look of surprise. “How’s Oliver ?”
“He’s recovering. He started walking again, slowly, but walking.” She reassured, making Eli smile in relief.
“Good. See you around then ?” To which Ayla smiled softly, blonde curls shifting as she affectionately tilted her head again before she turned around and left. His gaze followed her movements before he himself left towards the kitchen.
All the concerned gazes of the people he lived with quickly started to get on his nerves as they multiplied. He sighed, grabbing an already prepared plate with more force than necessary, however he didn’t even have the time to take a bite out of the toast when another pair of eyes dropped on him. He let out a deep sigh.
“Hey… Not too mad I hope ?” The guy he recognized as David, a housekeeper that was a bit older than him, asked.
“Why would I be mad ?” Eli asked, intrigued at whatever was happening for everyone to be looking at him like he was an angry dog. He finally took a bite of the tasty toast just when David started speaking.
“Why wouldn’t you be ? We were all surprised when we saw her in the meeting room…”
…what.
“Saw who ?” Just as Eli said those words, David suddenly tensed up and looked around, as if searching for an escape route. He rocked back and forth in an uncomfortable motion as he stammered.
“Uh well… Uh…”
“David…”
“I didn’t catch her name.” He blurted out, before glancing to the side once more. “Aaand I gotta go.” He practically ran out before Elijah could catch him. So with a roll of his eyes he abandoned his breakfast to instead head to the meeting room.
“Talk about a day…” He mumbled to himself as he stomped away.
🍃
“What the hell is she doing here ?!” He hissed at his boss, hearing him mutter “oh god…” under his breath.
Of all the people that could’ve been in the meeting room, it just had to be a hero.
He sent a pinning glare to Kate, who was just sitting there, at the other end of the table, to which she answered by scrunching her nose at him in a mocking manner.
He felt his eye twitch.
He reached for one of the knives attached to his belt just as Boss spoke up.
“Eli.” A warning. Or well, a reminder. Elijah could only clench his jaw and slowly let go of the knife, his hand instead going to grip at the table so hard it looked like it might crack under the pressure.
His boss let out a soft sigh before gesturing for him to sit down, which he didn’t, before he further explained.
“As you know, we needed someone to do the Anthony mission with you since Oliver can’t…” Sensing where he was going with this, Eli shifted his glare to him instead. “And she offered, I considered it… And accepted-”
“WHAT ?” Elijah’s hands slammed against the table. “Are you kidding ?! Her ?! A hero ?!”
“Just hear me out on this Eli-”
“No ! No way ! I’m not going on a mission with a hero !” He stubbornly stood his ground, voice raising. “I’m not gonna ally myself with someone who’s kind has massacred mine ! They-” He clenched his jaw, barely sparing Kate a glare. “Can we talk ? In private.”
His boss sighed, but nodded, pushing himself up. “Wait here.” He instructed Kate, who answered with two thumbs up.
The older man exited the room first, closely followed by Elijah as he slammed the door behind them.
When he stopped, Elijah kept walking, tugging his boss further from the door to make sure Kate couldn’t listen in. The man rolled his eyes slightly but followed.
“Have you officially lost your mind ? Bringing a hero here ?! Sending her on one of our missions ?! Do you want us all dead ?!” Eli hissed, keeping his voice quiet enough despite the obvious frustration. The taller man sighed.
“She’s not going to attack us.”
“You have no idea whether or not she’s gonna attack us, you can’t read her mind ! Maybe she’s in there planning her attack, like every other fucking hero that entered this place !” Eli’s gaze kept switching from his boss to the door, making sure Kate wasn’t getting out.
“Elijah. We’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that, Adrien-” He immediately cut himself off as the name escaped his mouth, clenching his jaw hard. He swallowed as Adrien’s glare settled on him, freezing him in place. “sorry- Boss… I just- I mean, we can’t trust her. We don’t know her.”
The older man’s gaze settled back in its usual gentle form as he pressed his lips into a thin line.
“You have to hear me out on this, Eli.” He raised his hand before Elijah could interrupt him again. “She’s Eleanor Bishop’s daughter, she basically owns their company, with her help we can get invitations for the party way more easily than if we were to squeeze ourselves in. Besides, she has no rational reason to attack us now, not after we helped her.”
“Heroes don’t need rational reasons, you know that.” He glared up at the man, though it felt weaker as he flexed his hand.
“I’m not asking you to trust her, I’m asking you to trust me, because I trust you. And I know that if something goes wrong, you’ll handle it. You’re the only agent I have capable of beating a hero alone.” His hand reached up to place itself on Elijah’s shoulder, applying a gentle pressure on it.
“So I don’t have a choice ?”
“You do. I’m just hoping you make the right one.” Eli scoffed at that, pushing Adrien’s hand off his shoulder.
“Bullshit, that’s just a fancy way of saying I have to.”
🍃
Go there and locate his office and room. His mansion is massive, you’re gonna need to map it out.
Adrien’s words echoed in his mind as he clipped his wrist device shut atop of his glove, Kate sitting next to him and observing the tablet Boss handed to them.
“So this’ll just… automatically map out the place ?” She asked, watching in awe.
“Yes.” He said through a sigh.
“So cool…” Kate whispered to herself, before glancing up at him. “Y’know.. I didn’t think you’d actually say yes to this mission.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” He started sorting through his knives, only attaching to his belt the normal throwing knives and the tranquilizing knife he just refilled. Then he reached over to fill 2 syringes up with tranquilizer, before clipping them to his belt, next to the knives. This was a stealth mission so no need for anything else like explosives or actual bullets.
“Ah. That explains it.” She hummed, placing the tablet back on one of the garage’s desks, before she glanced over at Elijah’s motorcycle, wondering if they were going to ride it. “Do you do this often ? Missions, I mean.”
“Often enough.”
“You’re not one for talking, are you ?” She lightheartedly joked, not that she minded the lack of talking, it was more the visible disdain he held for her that intensified the awkwardness of their predicament. Elijah merely sent an annoyed glance her way, which made her punch two fists in the air in a quick motion, mumbling “Great.” as she did.
“We’re only there to watch and map the place, so no touching anything, no moving anything, and you listen to what I tell you.” He instructed, pushing his gun into its holster as Kate stood up with a firm nod, picking up the tablet once more to put it in the small belt pouch that was given to her. “The cameras will only be deactivated for an hour once we step foot into the building, so we’ll need to be quick.”
Eli’s gaze flicked towards the clock before he quickly grabbed his helmet and slipped it on. “They’ll be in the house in about 2 hours. We’re gonna be out and far by then.”
“How do we know they’re not gonna get home early ?” She questioned as he handed her a spare helmet. She took it with a small smile, then grabbed her bow and quiver, slinging them over her shoulder and back.
“Technically we don’t know for sure.” He started, and Kate couldn’t help but tense up. “But we did learn their schedule, they’re in a meeting right now that’s supposed to last 30 more minutes, then they’re expected at a dinner.” That earned an audible sigh of relief from Kate. He guessed she was just glad the chance of them being ambushed was low, even if it remained a possibility.
Then his gaze dropped to her bow and he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “You really should make a retractable version of that.” He said, to which she looked sheepish.
“I know… I need to ask Clint how but the old man’s busy.” She explained, and he hummed, not caring enough to ask for a life story, nor to inform her that the people here could help her with that.
He hopped on his modified bike and waited for her to do the same. When she fully settled in and placed her hands on his waist for balance, he wasted no time in speeding out of the garage and on the way to the location. He heard a giggle coming from the woman sitting behind him, and couldn’t help but deadpan.
“Sorry… I’m just excited. I never rode a bike before !” She said as another giggle escaped her, looking around them as they flashed through the city.
“Don’t care.”
Kate just snorted, shrugging it off.
Once they got close enough to the location, he scanned the city around them to make sure nobody was watching, before swerving off road. Barely two minutes after that, they reached the back path of Anthony’s mansion.
The taller woman looked up at the building, eyes widening slightly as Elijah hopped off the bike, removing his helmet in the same movement.
“And they say my house’s extravagant…” She mumbled and followed Eli, discarding her head protection next to the motorcycle.
“Your house is extravagant.” He walked towards the backdoor of the home, before crouching down in front of it and pushing a metal device against it, the light of the screen lighting up his face. She just rolled her eyes at his comment.
She watched as he pressed a few commands, and soon enough multiple clicking sounds were heard, as if something was deactivated, or unlocked. Her gaze was filled with slight awe as he removed the device and pushed the door open. He carefully stepped in, Kate right behind him.
Elijah blindly reached behind him, palm up and open. He needed to activate the program on the tablet for it to map out the building.
Kate gave it a confused look, before placing her hand on his with a tilted head, causing him to immediately jerk his hand away and give her a flabbergasted glare.
“The tablet, you idiot ! Not your hand !” He hissed, keeping his voice low enough just in case.
“Oh- Oh. Right. Yes, sorry.” She fumbled over her words, pulling the tablet from her pouch and handing it to him with an awkward but apologetic look.
“Why would you think I’d want to hold your hand ?!” He whispered-yelled, confused at the mere idea.
“I don’t know !” She whispered back, her voice a slightly higher pitch than usual. “You guys are weird here.”
How stupid is this woman…
He gave her one last dumbfounded look before he turned back to the tablet, activating the program as they continued walking. He shoved the tablet in his own belt pouch before pulling out his gun.
They carefully explored the different rooms, all fancily decorated and annoyingly big. They quickly finished the first floor, and as they did he checked his earlier device for the time they had left until the cameras reactivated.
42 minutes and 27 seconds.
26.
25.
Elijah nodded to himself before catching up to Kate, who was already half up the marble stairs.
“We have 42 minutes left.” He informed, to which Kate beamed.
“We’re just so efficient.” She claimed, before tripping over something, catching herself last second. He raised an eyebrow, planning on mocking her, except he looked down and saw a clipboard. “Why’s a clipboard just randomly sitting there ?” She whispered the question, tilting her head as he crouched before it.
He carefully picked it up from where it was probably discarded during a rush, quickly reading the words. It was the list of guests, and ink fresher than the rest sat at the bottom.
‘Eleanor Bishop’s guests : Mia Brooks & Christopher Salas.’
His eyebrow couldn’t help but raise again as he placed the clipboard right where it sat. Then, his gaze settled on Kate, head tilted up.
“You were quick with it.” He observed, pushing himself up in a standing position, beginning to walk again. The older woman couldn’t help but feel proud of herself, a grin spreading on her face and her chest puffing out in a confident movement.
It made him want to stab his eyes out.
“Perks of being my mother’s daughter.” She said with a playful wink as she fell into step beside him. He barely hummed in acknowledgement.
The second floor was somehow filled with even more rooms than the first floor. There were guest rooms, bathrooms, a projection room, a dark room, and side offices. They walked through each of them, the program mapping each path as the minutes ticked. He checked the time.
21 minutes and 57 seconds.
56.
55.
54.
“21 minutes.” He voiced, glancing at Kate who was snooping around a corner. They still had to find Park’s bedroom and office, which he assumed were on the third and last floor.
“Third floor then ?” She asked, perking up from her searching to instead trot over to him. He simply nodded, already headed towards the stairs.
They hurried up said stairs as he kept a watchful eye on his surroundings, just in case his device had missed a camera, or an audio recording security. Kate pushed a door open, a slight creek echoing in the quiet, she pushed her head through then gave a thumbs up, assuring its emptiness. She stepped in as Elijah looked up to see a metal plaque attached above the door, in which the words “MAIN OFFICE” were engraved.
Bingo.
He glanced to the side to see a bigger, rather extravagant door and immediately made the safe guess that this was Anthony’s bedroom. He made a face at the questionable decorative choice, before following Kate in the office.
His eyes scanned the room, while she snooped through a few documents. A large, rectangular, marble table sat in the middle of the room, taking up most of the space. Around it sat 10 chairs and on it was a single closed file in the middle. He approached it and flicked it open, only to find documents about the party. Drink and snack lists, decoration orders, another copy of the updated guest list, the hired DJ and some more useless stuff.
He sighed and closed it.
He then pulled out the tablet and placed a waypoint named “A Office” on the mapped out building, before exiting the room to instead head to the bedroom he saw earlier. He looked over his shoulder to see Kate following him. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he simply opened the door and stepped inside.
He was directly met with a king size bed staring back at him. He blinked.
That’s a weird bed placement…
Next to it was an expensive looking bedside table, on which sat a flower pot filled with dead roses. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment, Kate, however, sure did.
“He sure knows how to take care of plants, huh ?” She sarcastically said, looking mildly amused as she walked past him, heading towards the desk in the left corner of the room. There were barely a few legal documents, some scattered pen and pencils, and a fancy perfume she recognized from somewhere, probably from gift shopping for Jack.
Elijah just hummed in answer, bringing the tablet back up to put a second waypoint he named “A Room”, then he turned the device off entirely, having the entirety of the mansion mapped out, and checked the time left.
16 minutes and 24 seconds.
“Let’s get out now befo–” His voice was cut off by annoyingly loud voices and the sound of multiple doors being opened and closed.
Both their heads snapped in sync towards the hallway, then to each other, eyes widened and suddenly alert.
Of course his assistants would get home early ! Why didn’t I think of that…
Before any of them had the time to curse whatever lord was watching them, Elijah looked around, then up, immediately spotting a ceiling vent big enough for a human to squeeze through. He acted without much thought.
Using the footboard’s top rail, he pushed himself up high enough to grab onto the vent and yank it open. He then let himself hang there just enough to take a breath, before climbing into the cramped space.
“Holy shit!” He heard Kate whisper under him. “Pull me up !” She then added, much to his displeasure.
Now inside, he reluctantly turned around to stretch out his arm as far as possible for Kate to grab onto, which she did almost directly, letting him pull her up into the limited area.
The both of them now on either side of the opened vent, Kate reached down to close the gate, keeping a finger on it to ensure it stayed that way. And right as she did, two seemingly exhausted workers entered the room.
One of them, a young looking man, tossed a suitcase onto the bed in front of them, earning a glare from the other man, who looked significantly older.
“Have some respect for Mr. Park’s stuff. You don’t get paid to toss it around like junk.” He scolded, delicately placing down the black briefcase he was holding at the edge of the bed. Elijah couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, while Kate bit down on her lower lip, eyebrows furrowed in obvious confusion.
“Why don’t we just fight them again ? They look pretty weak…” She whispered over to him, causing him to roll his eyes.
“Because they can’t know we were here.” He whispered back, keeping his voice as quiet as possible. Kate just scrunched his nose at him and went back to watching the two men argue over how to treat a suitcase.
I hate heroes.
He couldn’t help but sigh at the thought, before mimicking the older woman’s movements.
“It’s fine ! It landed on the bed, there’s no way anything’s broken !” The younger man said, throwing his hands up in the air. The other man pinched the bridge of his nose before pulling him by the elbow, out of the room, all while scolding him about “appropriate conduct” and “respect of elders and superiors”.
Kate waited for the sound of footsteps going down stairs to let go of the vent. She jumped down once she did, closely followed by Elijah.
They both landed as quietly as one could manage, before he approached the big window and pushed it open. He stabbed one end of the heavy duty elastic clipped to his hip into the edge, the mechanism activating and securing itself into the stone. Kate watched with an unsure raised eyebrow.
“You don’t expect me to go down the same way, do you ?” All she got as an answer was a deadpan look, before he jumped down, effectively landing on the ground, harm free. She swallowed.
For a moment, she just stood there, bouncing slightly and shaking her hands to calm herself. She took a deep breath, then exhaled.
“Come on Kate… You’ve done this before, you can do it again. Easy peasy !” She told herself, approaching the edge. “...How am I supposed to do this?”
Elijah rolled his eyes so high there was a decent chance they would’ve stayed like this forever, and mimicked a firefighter going down a pole.
“OH–!” She let out a little too loudly, smacking a hand against her mouth. Only when she was sure nobody had did she let go. She slowly pushed herself up onto the edge, and held onto the elastic as tightly as she could. She could tell that Elijah was getting impatient and potentially paranoid because of the tapping foot and anxious glances.
Fucking heroes…
He sent her an unreasonably aggressive glare.
After a few more seconds of hyping herself up, Kate finally wrapped her legs around the cord, letting herself slide down the comically high building, landing safely, perhaps a bit clumsily, but safely. Eli just looked at her with an unimpressed raised eyebrow and with one flick of a button, turned the mechanism off, the wire retracting onto itself, now smugly attached at his hip.
Without another word, he walked away towards his motorcycle, already apprehending the next mission.
Kate followed, admittedly a bit slower, but weirdly thrilled at the whole experience she just lived.