Chapter Text
Tandy felt like she was burning from the inside out. Normally the light inside her was a nice warm presence, sometimes even hot almost weirdly righteous feeling like she was channeling Captain America or something or maybe that was just in her head. But right now it was almost overwhelming. She felt like a rig about to explode. She needed to find Ty and fast.
She couldn't release her light without worrying about maybe hurting someone not to mention she knew as much as she felt like she was bursting Ty would feel like he was starving like a sucking void that can't be filled sucking him into cold darkness which is why she had to hold on. For him. Neither of them was a fan of taking lives and she wouldn't force him down that dark path for her own comfort. Tandy jogged down the alleyways stopping every now and again to brace against the burning pain expanding through her entire body.
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Tandy and Tyrone had fully embraced their vigilante/superhero lifestyles both agreeing that there was no way they could live normal lives with their abilities and both wanting to help others like themselves. They even got full on costumes for the sake of recognition so people didn't constantly question who they were.
Ty and her now had their powers pretty well understood and after accessing their full capabilities Tandy discovered she could summon a crescent moon over her left eye, odd but, the light of it did help obscure her face and allowed them some amenity outside of taking down despicable human beings and preventing the world from falling into chaos, something that seemed to want to happen scarily often.
Currently or well for the past two months the two had relocated to New York following a huge drug cartel that had been dealing with a group in New Orleans trading girls for drugs. Now that the human traffickers were taken care of they were focusing their efforts on shutting down the coke and heroin dealers. No small feat.
It was going alright though till a new player came about some weird green cyborg alien dude who seemed to disrupt their powers or at least block them. He didn't appear to be able to block them at the same time but before they could get the upper hand in the fight another cyborg alien, this one seemingly a female and purple came out of a blue portal and threw something at Ty. Tandy watched helplessly as her daggers bounced harmlessly off an invisible barrier as a weird mechanical box formed around Ty trapping him.
She couldn't see his face but she felt like she could feel his fearful look as they both realized he couldn't teleport out. Tandy was blasted by the green one's arm cannons into a wall as they three disappeared into a blue portal. Tandy was left crying for her best friend in an abandoned factory full of dead drug dealers, bloody from where her light slashed and stabbed them.
Tandy disposed of the drugs and left with determination in her steps. Light burning bright in her anger.
Tandy went through the leads the two had on the cartel and she searched through the internet to find anything matching the two beings she saw take Ty. All she was able to find was that the two beings had robbed a couple of labs around the world, most dealing in energy or facilities researching something called dark matter. She also discovered that the cartel had some dealings with the beings apparently the beings had been the ones to encourage the alliance between the New Orlean sex traffickers and the cartel. Which helped explain why two organizations so geographically separate had aligned although why would these beings want that? None of it made any sense.
The uncertainty and crippling sense of alone sent Tandy into more than one panic attack. She couldn't do this without Ty and she had no one she could really turn to. The only alliances they had were the Runaways and they were currently dealing with something even if the fact that Tandy couldn't teleport them here wasn't a factor. Evita wasn't an expert in alien cyborgs and she really didn't want to tell her that Ty was missing even if they weren't together anymore. She had to find them on her own. She had no other choice.
Tandy worked day and night for three days hardly sleeping as she searched for Tyrone and each day was harder. She was weaker without Tyrone there to have her back and level her out. Tandy only took lives in self defense but the few she did take added to the already burning light inside of her with their bodily energy.
Tandy was sweating as she made her way down the alleyways back towards the church they had been taking refuge at. It wasn't abandoned but, father Lanctom was nice enough to let them crash there in the lower part of the church and her and Ty in return gave what little money they had to them to thank them for their kindness.
In the haze of her mind heading to the church was the only plan she could come up with the lack of sleep and the burning inside her. It clouded her mind. Looking out it was like seeing through heat rising off asphalt on a summer day. Tandy jogged with a slight limp from her fight with yet another group of dealers panicked vulnerability clawing inside her like any minute something would pop out behind her without Ty there to watch her back. She almost sobbed at the thought of his cool embrace like a cold compress on fevered skin.
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Fury stood in front of his assembled Avengers, currently composed of the original six minus Thor and plus a new guy the Captain had brought aboard, Sam Wilson AKA Falcon.
"We have a situation. Two problems that seem to be connected. I know I informed you all earlier this month that Shield was tracking a group of cyberneticly enhanced alieniod beings that have been robbing science facilities all over the globe. Now thanks to doctor Banner and Stark we were able to track their energy signatures as they teleported and we were able to map out their movements. Now we were going to be having a meeting to strategize taking them down as well as discuss possible theories as to why they have stolen what they have and what their plan is but now, we have a possible complication. Three days ago there was an explosion at an abandoned warehouse just outside the city limits. Based on evidence recovered the place was a manufacturing plant for illegal heroin this in of itself isn't anything near Shield level of concern but, our little energy map shows a spike in that location a half and hour before the place went up in smoke."
"Wait, I thought you said this place was a heroin manufacturing plant. Our guys have been going after high level science labs. What would they want from some run of the mill drug lab?" Sam asked
"That is the million dollar question and we have a really bad suspicion we know what they took." Agent Hill says as she places a stack of files on the table for each of the Avengers to take.
"This is security footage from a building down the street from the warehouse after it blew." Fury said as he pulled up a hologram.
On the screen was a glowing woman in a white skin tight suit that had an impossible dagger shaped nude cut out expanding over her chest above her breasts and down to her belly button. (It had to be a nude colored shape because no way was that fabric staying put on it's own like that although it gave an impressive illusion.)
The woman had something glowing around her eye making it difficult to make out her face and she had blood coating her. It was unclear if she was injured or not though as she walked down the street. It was clear even from the odd angle that she was breathing hard like she just got out of a fight.
" That is the Vigilante known as Dagger. She is one part of a duo. Her partner Cloak, a teleporter hasn't been seen since their last escapades one day prior to this. The two are never seen apart which leads us to believe that our cyborgs somehow found a way to contain him and took him. Which is a big problem. Not much is known about the duo other than they are powerful and they tend to go after sex traffickers and drug cartels. They first popped up in New Orleans although two months ago they moved to New York. The pair seem to be a literal yin and yang. Dagger can create daggers of light and energy blasts and Cloak can summon shadows and teleport."
As Fury spoke he pulled up videos of Cloak and Dagger fighting. Dagger leaping impressively graceful as she slashes criminals gaining a glow after each kill and Cloak seemingly Absorbing screaming victims. The Avengers cringed as they watched screaming criminals get dragged into darkness. Even Natasha despite not showing it as much outwardly was disturbed by the scene.
The girl's moves as she killed reminded her of herself. Although the woman wasn't nearly as skilled she was unnaturally fast and her movements spoke of ballet training, similar to the red room. The glow after kills seemed weirdly symbolic to the Widow like marking red in a ledger. Cloak was a thing of nightmares, literally consuming darkness.
" It is unclear where the people Cloak consumes or possibly teleports go although they are never heard from again and Dagger appears to get stronger after she kills."
"Fascinating" Bruce said leaning in to watch the woman before realizing what he said and blushing ashamedly ducking his head " I-I mean it spears she is is absorbing their energy."
"What like taking their souls?" Sam asked horrified
"No. No. I mean like the energy that makes a body run. Even like just thermo energy."
"Ookaaay" Sam holds out the sound looking skeptically back at the doctor.
"There are also some reports of Dagger using her light to heal victims of sex trafficking or drug overdose. As well as unconfirmed visions from touching either of the duo. Seemingly positive from Dagger and nightmarish from Cloak."
"So literal embodiments of light and dark good and evil? Does that mean nightmare shadow is evil and light ray is good?" Stark Throws in trying to understand the duo's relationship.
Hill answers, "No they are literally darkness and light but, they both appear to be in agreement morally speaking."
"So ends justify the means powered Vigilantes with the powers of light and darkness taking out drugs cartels and stabbing sex traffickers in the face. ok then" Stark concludes not appearing totally against or for the pair just wary.
Cap on the other hand was very clearly feeling some kind of way and it wasn't in favor of the duo " Do we have a theory on why they would take Cloak and a location on Dagger?"
"We do have a location on Dagger, she has been fairly easy to track without her teleporter friend. We believe that Cloak was taken for the same purpose the research on dark matter was taken although we are still unsure of their goal. It is still possible with the energy technology they stole that they still might come back for Dagger. They might just not have been able to contain her or they are just waiting till she is weaker." Agent Hill reported and pulled up a video onto the screen.
She continued, "This is live. Ever since the warehouse explosion Dagger has appeared more and more unwell and significantly brighter. Thermal imaging from one of our drones has picked up her temperature at 102.8°F. We think that she is becoming unstable without her partner to counteract her powers which is also possibly another reason for them only taking one of the pair. It is unclear what will happen if the two continue apart. So this is obviously very time sensitive. She could be a ticking time bomb."
Fury took over saying, "We need you to bring her in and secure her in a containment pod. We have one that is used to be for testing and storing radioactive and light sensitive bombs. It should hopefully hold her even if she becomes unstable."
"You think she could possibly combust?" Bruce asked.
"We are unsure. We aren't taking it off the table. All we know is that she is increasing in temperature and her behavior is becoming more erratic." Fury told them.
"We need you guys to bring her in safely and contain her if need be. We also want Falcon to do some recon at a few energy research facilities that haven't been hit yet, that are under military preview and plant a few tracking devices. That way if they make another hit. We could possibly get a location."
Falcon agrees and Hill takes him out of the room to get him set up for his side mission. On the screen Tandy almost tripped over her own feet and throws the third look back over her shoulder in the last minute. Her arms and legs are visibly shaking. Cap nods and starts giving out orders.
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