Gacha God: Logical Explanations (ch. 23) (Patreon)

As far as disasters went, this one was an unmitigated shit show, Natasha summarized her thoughts rather aptly as she sat at a round table inside of Avenger's tower. It was a disaster on every imaginable level. First, Italy was rather upset about the spy plane that crashed in their front yard. Understandably. The security council was also rather upset about the loss of the Gravitonium. And of course, Ian Quinn was kicking up a fuss about Shield stealing from him, but at the very least, those claims were going unproven because Ian wasn't willing to explain what exactly had been stolen.

"Would someone kindly explain to me how this mess landed in my lap?" Fury questioned, sounding exhausted and annoyed. "I have the world giving me a colonoscopy at the moment and I can't say I'm a fan. We lost the Gravitonium. We lost Dr. Hall. We lost our only suspect. Does anyone happen to have a silver lining to brighten up my day?"

Clint raised a hand, "We got Skye back. And detained a member of Rising Tide."

"No. Agent Skye rescued herself and brought her ex-boyfriend with her," Fury corrected, the hologram projection of him in the center of the table crossed his arms. "Big difference."

"We… know her allegiance? Coulson sure can pick 'em," Clint offered a small shrug, that that probably was the only highlight of the mess. After Skye woke up in the care of her boyfriend -- now ex -- the first thing that she did was reach out to Shield. There had been some significant doubts about Skye for those in the know. A lot of doubts about Coulson too. But, the worst of the naysayers swallowed their words because if Skye was going to betray Shield, then she missed an incredible chance to do so. Though, it did mean that her value as a spy decreased considerably on account that Rising Tide had kicked her out of the group.

"We also know that there is a death game going on in the world," Natasha ventured. It was hardly the first time she had seen death. Or the thousandth. It wasn't even close to her first time seeing a kid die. Still, it was harder to swallow all the same for a simple fact -- the kid, Cassius, seemed ready for it. His death was sudden, fast, but he had the eyes of a man that knew that death wasn't far away. She had only realized it after he died.

"That too," Clint snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "We've been workshopping theories. Back during the Russian mob incident, we noticed a lot of people around the same size of Audacity helping him out. I'm thinking that they are the same size. I'm thinking clones," Clint said, the good cheer from his voice fading away.

Fury tilted his head, and it said a great deal about the state of the world that he didn't dismiss it as a possibility. "That's a leap, but not a big one," he decided.

What they knew was that Cassius was associated with Audacity in some capacity. Soul-bounded, something that the research team was trying to figure out. Ignoring the story he told and focusing on the implications, a pretty clear picture started to be painted -- a large group of children grew up being trained and molded to become something. The weak were killed off, those that couldn't adapt perished, and the strong were forced to compete until only one remained.

"It fits," Natasha spoke up, her voice neutral. "All the people with Audacity during the mob incident were male. Factoring in the height, it makes more sense than someone out there kidnapping dozens of children to raise them to become whatever the end goal might be." Clones made more sense in this case. While it would be a stretch to claim that it would be impossible to kidnap so many children for a death game like the one that was described, their shared height made her lean towards the clone theory. "Until we know more, it seems dangerous to theorize details about the nature of the death game, but what we can assume is that there is a degree of factionalism involved."

Strength in numbers. Even in a hyper competitive situation where there could be only one winner, it was common for alliances to form. Or to congregate around a central figure, which Audacity seemed to be. Or Audacity could be a number of people who simply traded out the equipment and the role. "The Tesseract, the Scepter, and now Gravitonium -- three is a pattern. We can assume that Audacity intends to use these materials to win this competition."

"I don't like that thought, Romanoff. It means that it's fierce enough that he would need planet destroying 8-0-4s to win it," Fury remarked, but he didn't sound like he disagreed. Not liking an idea didn't mean you could afford to be unprepared for it. "It's also a question of how he knew about the Gravitonium in the first place. Cassius got there before us." They had found his flight records. He had taken off to Malta before Shield even knew about the Gravitonium. It was a small lead of about an hour, but it was indicative of something.

"It changes how we need to approach Audacity. I say we lean into cooperation. He doesn't respect Shield, but that seems to be because we managed to miss whatever it is he's stuck participating in. He blames us for that," Natasha ventured, her own experience talking. It was natural. Shield saved and protected so many -- it was natural to ask 'why not me?' She certainly did. Early on, she even blamed Clint for it. 'Why couldn't you have done this sooner?'

Clint inclined his head to her, knowing what she felt. "Maybe deal with his 'Dad' and put an end to the competition. It'll be a tough sell, though. A childhood like that doesn't lend to being able to trust easily," he said, casting a glance her way. Very fair. She did try to kill him a half dozen times before it started to sink in that he was genuinely trying to help her with no ulterior motive.

"It'll be a tough sell in general. Audacity has made it to the top of a number of shit lists. Mine included," Fury remarked. He certainly could cause messes, Natasha would give him that. "We'll need a point of contact to work off of. Waiting for something dangerous to pop up is too risky. I'll chum the waters with something interesting. Even if Audacity and his team don't show up, it'll be good to see who does."

Natasha let out a small breath of relief. She saw more of herself in Cassius than she was willing to admit. He even had a painfully fake name. Natasha wasn't really sure if she had any right to be called a hero, but she at least wanted to pay the kindness that Clint showed her forward. Maybe Audacity and his 'siblings' couldn't be saved, but it wouldn't be for a lack of trying on her part. "Until then, sir?"

"Back up plans. I have Coulson's reports, but the world security council won't be satisfied by taking his word that Audacity won't build a planet busting bomb. I want you and Coulson's team tracking him down and bringing him in. If he doesn't come willingly, then drag him in kicking and screaming." A little disheartening, but not unexpected.

"It'll be easier tracking Dr. Hall and the Gravitonium. We know that Audacity has connections within Rising Tide, so that's another lead," Clint offered. They did have avenues of investigation. "And we know he's probably somewhere in New York. That narrows things down considerably. Especially if we're right about the clone thing."

"Good. I'll leave the two of you in charge of this. It's an Avengers matter. We need results -- we haven't put our best foot forward so far and people are already looking at Shield and questioning if the results we bring are worth the messes that we cause," Fury reminded them what was at stake. The world knew that the Tesseract was stolen from Shield, and now a massive spy plane with their logo on it had very publicly crashed in Italy. The good that Shield did was done without notice. It solved problems and prevented disasters before the public realized they were in danger and deliberately didn't advertise it. So, the public only had the mistakes to point to.

With that, Fury winked out. Likely to go get yelled at again. He was hiding it, but he was under a lot of pressure.

"That went as well as it could have," Clint decided, standing up from the table.

"A lot less yelling involved than I thought there would be. I hope he's not saving it for Coulson," Natasha remarked as they left the meeting room. Coulson had just come back from the dead, and there were many that questioned if he should still be an agent in the first place. A public mess like this wasn't going to help things in the slightest.

"Suppose we'll just have to ask him," Clint decided, striding through the halls of Avenger's Tower. The two of them made their way down to where the rest of the taskforce was staying. With the Bus currently in Italy and in no condition to fly, they needed a base of operations, and Tony had proven to be unusually generous by offering them an entire floor in the tower.

Tony was too smart for his own good, and just smart enough that she could only guess at his motivations. It could be something as simple as he found the disaster hilarious and he wanted a reminder, or he was spying on Shield through the team that would inevitably be used to spy on him. For that reason, it was no surprise when they found Tony in the lab with Fitz-Simmons. Two brilliant Shield scientists that were so attached at the hip that most people who heard of them thought they were one person until they actually met them.

Fitz was a young man with short dirty blonde hair, who was playing with a hologram. Simmons was a woman with dark brown hair and eyes. Both were in their early twenties, having graduated college in their teens, then graduating from the Shield Academy of Science and Technology before they turned twenty. Both were certified geniuses in their fields -- Fitz was technology and engineering while Simmons was chemistry and biology.

And Tony was effortlessly keeping up with both of them. "Phasing makes the most sense. Hard light requires a power source and a projector, in addition to the fact that the constructs would be hollow. The totem poles were solid enough to not be moved when your plane hit it and soil samples confirm the weight," Tony remarked, popping a blueberry into his mouth as he and Fitz tried to figure out how the totem pole worked.

They had holograms around the room, projections of every time the totem had been used and caught on camera. There were others of Audacity's fight at the villa. "Phasing implies the existence of pocket dimensions. That's extremely advanced technology," Fitz argued.

"Maybe it's magic?" Tony remarked, and how he said it earned a look from Natasha.

Fitz scoffed, "Magic isn't real. If we figure out where he's pulling the totem poles from, I can figure out a way to shut it off. It can't be matter manipulation…" Fitz muttered to himself, not even looking up as they entered.

"Super secret spy meeting done already? Whatcha talk about?" Tony asked swiveling in his chair to face them.

Clint chuckled, "Like you don't already know."

Tony gasped. "Me? Listen in on your private conversations. Why, I would never!" Everyone in the room gave him a full look at that. Fitz-Simmons caught on quick. "Ah, well, can you blame me? You're a spy organization. Your secrets are bound to be way more entertaining than spying on the average Joe." Not exactly helping his case, but he knew that.

"Thoughts on what you heard?" Clint asked, taking a seat and an offered blueberry.

Tony's reaction was interesting. "A few," he remarked. Tony was a narcissist. One in recovery, but a narcissist all the same. He didn't hide his thoughts or opinions. If he was keeping them hidden… "Is this going to be an Avengers thing? Getting the crew back together?”

He was probing. “It might help if there is less Shield and more Avengers when we do eventually run into him again,” Natasha admitted, watching him carefully. “Do you have anything that could help track him down?” She asked, earning a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Probably, but I have my own projects that I’m working on at the moment,” Tony continued. He hardly laid out everything that he was working on at any general moment on the table, but when prompted, he’d usually happily volunteer the information. If only to show off how smart he was. Both Fitz and Simmons perked up, seemingly interested, but when he didn’t continue, Simmons spoke up.

“Mr. Stark was just taking a break from a project," Simmons volunteered. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Tony's face tighten. It wasn't that he was a poor liar. He was a lot better than most, but she had been trained since birth to see tells and she had about six months of time working for him as a secretary to learn them. Which is how she knew him so well. Tony was actively trying to work on himself -- something praise worthy -- but change was gradual. He hadn't changed so much that he took breaks from something that interested him.

Tony was obsessive. When he found something that caught his interest, he gave it his absolute focus to the detriment of everything else. Including his health. When he found something that kept his interest, then he wouldn't leave the lab for days in end. Meaning he was interested enough in Coulson's team to take a break… or he was taking a break because of Audacity.

"It's nothing special," Tony dismissed quickly. Tellingly. "Little side thing I have going on for another suit of armor. What I am far more interested in is… you," Tony said, pointing at the door just as it slid open. Phil Coulson stepped through it, a wide eyed Skye behind him. "You look to be remarkably well for a dead man."

Phil gave a tight smile and Natasha kept her expression even. If he only knew. "Tony. It's good to see you again, and I wasn't dead. Almost, but I got better after spending some vacation time in Tahiti," Phil replied. As far as he was aware, he was telling the truth. His memories of his resurrection were wiped, replaced with fake memories of him spending a month on a white sandy beach drinking mojitos and getting massages. Natasha genuinely hoped that illusion held.

"Sounds relaxing for someone that got their heart cut in two," Tony returned, sounding suspicious. That was the very last thing that they needed. It was decided well in advance that Tony couldn't learn about Project Tahiti, even if he could greatly help with it. He would get ideas.

"Very," Phil replied. Then his expression softened. "I'm sorry for faking my death. It wasn't my decision. When I was back in the field… being dead had a lot of uses as a spy," Phil admitted offering a small shrug.

Tony popped another blueberry into his mouth, chewing for a long moment, drawing out the suspense. "Well, so long as you tell me all about Tahiti, we'll be square " Fuck. "As for you -- the guest of honor, as it were. Skye. If that is your real name," Tony said, jabbing a finger at her. "Blueberry?"

Skye looked like a deer caught in headlights. She looked between her, Clint, and Tony, clearly having no idea what she was supposed to be doing. Natasha was a little curious as well -- Phil took a big risk with her. It had paid off so far, but it was still a question of if she was worth the trouble that she brought. "It… is? I think?" Skye tried, looking down at the offered bag of blueberries. "No thank you?"

"Suit yourself. So, what is Shield going to offer as bait to lure Audacity out of hiding?" He questioned, and he did sound interested. He also freely confirmed that he was listening to their calls.

It was Fitz who answered, "A monkey."

Simmons rolled her eyes so hard it was a genuine wonder that they didn't fall out of her head. "Oh, Fitz…!"

"We know he wants one! You heard him too! We train a little monkey -- a macaque would be perfect. They are super small and highly intelligent! We release details about Shield's monkey training facilities-" Fitz started and Natasha was deeply amused by the passion in his voice.

"Which Shield will naturally need to bait with real highly trained monkeys," Tony supplied, sounding far too amused for his own good.

"Yes. Audacity comes, we capture him, and since we already have the facility…" Fitz trailed off, seemingly just now realizing the looks he was getting. "It'll work!"

There was just one issue, "We don't know if Audacity would share Cassius' interest in highly trained spy monkeys." That was a sentence she never thought she'd utter. Then she caught a shared look between Fitz and Simmons. "Or do we?"

"The samples that were collected from the blood stains where Cassius was murdered have been collected and analyzed. And, well," Simmons pushed a hologram forward, revealing a DNA test. "Sample A was collected from Mr. Starks tower after the Incident. Sample B is from Cassius. It's almost an identical match," Simmons began, and that caught everyone's attention.

That lent a great deal of credibility to the clone theory. "Almost?" Natasha questioned, her tone sharp.

"It's a ninety percent match," Simmons explained, and that was… a rather peculiar number. If they were siblings, then one would expect a fifty to sixty percent match. If he was a clone, then you would expect a hundred percent match. Ninety was just… odd. "There were numerous discrepancies between the samples, but the easiest way to say it is that… Cassius has a number of genes… removed, for a lack of a better word."

That had a whole lot of implications. She had no idea how you 'removed' DNA, but she was focused on something far more important. "Can we confirm if Cassius was Audacity during the Incident?" She questioned, a familiar weight in her gut.

"I can't confirm or deny anything with the data that we have, but it is a possibility," Simmons responded. A possibility. That didn't sit well with Natasha. Not in the slightest. Even if it did offer some insight into the function of Audacity's 'organization,' it was still a bitter pill to swallow that the Audacity that ended the Incident was killed by a sniper in some monstrous game for their creator's love.

However, Tony raised a hand, "I have something to bring to the table." He announced, his tone downright gleeful. "I got my hands on the samples-"

"Those are classified-" Phil started to sigh.

"Sure, whatever. Point being, I did my own tests. Second opinion, and all of that -- and Shield missed something good. Jarvis," Tony called out, dismissing the holograms to display a single one. She was looking at… "DNA tests only look at two sets of DNA and compare them, and tell you how much shared DNA there is. So, unless you analyze it, you're going to miss something rather important."

The DNA was a triple helix. Except the third helix was… wrong. Unnatural.

"He's not human," Natasha said, her brow furrowing. A stabilizing agent for the cloning process? Simmons' jaw dropped as she sputtered, going to double check the samples. It was a simple oversight. They had no reason to analyze the blood beyond a simple DNA test. A simple mistake, but an important one.

"No. Not entirely. Audacity, whoever he might be, is two thirds human and one third something else. The samples I have of the DNA are esoteric in nature. Alien," Tony voiced, stepping forward to look at the DNA. Natasha had her answer -- Tony was interested in Audacity. What he was. What made him tick.

It was Phil that spoke up, "Two thirds human? One part alien? Are we talking about a full human and a half alien set of parents?" A logical guess but Tony shook his head.

"Too clean for that. No, his DNA is a perfect split. It was engineered," Tony answered.

Clint sighed, "Well, the clone theory is sounding a lot more likely. And, as interesting as this is, it doesn't exactly help us find him. He's been out in the eye of the world. People don't get why he attacked a nice guy billionaire because we're suppressing the information about the Gravitonium." He scratched at his cheek, looking at the triple helix as he tried to put all the pieces together.

Natasha offered a small nod. "If he's smart- if they're smart… they'll lie low."

…

1. Nemean Pelt (PJO)
2. The Machine
3. Gem Cat
4. Expanded Suitcase
5. Fortress of Doom (DOOM Eternal)
6. Divine Dragoon Spirit Stone  (Legend of Dragoon)
7. Elenium Type 97 Operation Orb (Youjo Senki)
8. Compass of Want (Pirates of the Caribbean)
9. Void Egg (No Man's Sky)
10. T-60 Series Power Armor (Fallout)
11. Scar's Tattoos (Full Metal Alchemist)
12. Fusion Earrings (Dragon Ball Z)
13. Black Barrel (FGO)
14. Ghost Step Tattoo
15. Green Beard's Gloves (Jackie Chan Adventures)
16. MK1 Strun (Warframe)
17. Shroud of Eden (Assassin's Creed)
18. Sonic Screwdriver (Doctor Who)
19. Draupnir Spear (God of War)
20. Crispy Bacon (Epic Battle Fantasy)

“Let's see what I got…!” I said, grabbing the dice and giving it a whirl. It spun and spun and spun before finally landing on a side with a number faced up in the air.

A five.

Then the dice vanished. I looked around, searching for my item, only to see that it was nowhere to be found. A fucking pit opened up in my gut as I dragged a hand down my face, instantly understanding what this meant. "Oh, no. Oh, shit. Shit, shit, shit," I muttered under my breath, standing on the rooftop of the building that I was now living in. There were a shocking number of abandoned buildings in New York.

Slowly, I looked up at the bright blue sky without a single cloud in sight. Just because I didn't see it didn't mean that it wasn't there. I knew exactly what was going on here. There were two scenarios in which the item didn't show up when I rolled it -- firstly, the dice didn't fade away until it was moved somewhere where it had enough space to fit the item. Or the item required circumstances that weren't met where it landed. Such as the need to be in outer space.

The dice had vanished. Telling me it was option number two.

"How the fuck am I-" I began, only to be cut off by a portal that opened up in front of me. It was an oval of swirling blue energy that made my stomach a little queasy looking at it. "Oh. That's convenient," I decided, stepping forward into the portal. My vision went white for a moment before I was hit with sterile air, a harsh contrast in comparison to New York.

A low whistle escaped me as I inspected where I had emerged. I could only describe it as an observation room. Before me was a bunch of stairs in a semi-circle that led up to the portal that I had just stepped out of. It was very… grandiose feeling. Everything was varying shades of gray and made of metal, giving the room a sci-fi look. And looking over my shoulder… "Pretty," I decided, looking out at Earth. It looked like the photos that I saw from the International Space Station, telling me that I was probably around the same altitude.

Earth really did look like a blue marble from up here. I could barely make out New York.

It took me a long moment to break my gaze from the planet, choosing to explore the Fortress further. One thing that I quickly discovered was that a lot of doors were closed off. They each needed some kind of power cell to open. Seemed like a shitty design flaw to me, but whatever. I had a badass Fortress in outer space. I could talk to Peter about removing them later. Ned and Peter were going to lose their absolute fucking minds when they saw this.

The only real room that was open to me was a command room. It looked like a proper sci fi command room with holograms and gizmos and shit. I didn't touch anything out of fear of accidentally hitting a lower into atmosphere button and losing my newfound fortress by crashing it into Earth. It was scenic, though…

Then my phone rang. Or, rather, my second phone rang. Taking it out of my pocket, I saw that it was the only number in the phone. "Morty's Mortuary Services -- you stab 'em, we slab 'em," I answered the phone as I stepped forward to a hologram of Earth. Was that how I used the teleportation feature?

"Adorable," A familiar voice remarked through the phone. At the very least, I still had a signal. Not really sure if I should still have a signal given how satellites were supposed to work, but it was convenient so I wouldn't complain. "I heard about your trip to Malta. Sounded exciting… and I wondered if you were up for a little more excitement?" Black Cat questioned, a smirk in her voice.

I smiled at Earth, "I'm always up for trouble."