Blackout | Matt Murdock

chapter ten | the avengers fucked up

True to her word, as soon as Michaela feels physically up to it, she contacts Spidey and lets him know she's on her way to Queens, to which he responds with a nearly incoherent block of emojis and a single line telling her where to meet him. She smiled when she saw it, because she's starting to get really damn attached to this kid, and it's frankly a little ridiculous that he's this stupidly endearing.

The meet-up spot is a rooftop, surprising absolutely no one, though Michaela realizes quickly it's less for the ease of access and more for what's across the street. As she settles at the edge of the roof, letting her legs dangle off the side, she squints down at the electronics store, where a wall of TVs occupy the front window. They're all tuned into the news, and they're all running a story about the Avengers and the recent carnage they brought to Sokovia. Hundreds of people died when the city fell, even with the Avengers (and SHIELD, apparently, so Michaela guesses that means they're done operating out of the shadows for now) clearing the city itself. And the threat that started it all – Ultron, the fucking sentient robot – came straight out of Stark's personal labs.

Michaela is... trying not to give them too much shit for it. At least, not all of the Avengers. Stark's genius is legendary, and his propensity for AI technology well-known, but this was a step too far in a direction he shouldn't have followed in the first place. Or. What the hell, Michaela doesn't know shit about the tech he was messing around with, but she knows now that Ultron orchestrated the stealing of the Vibranium from the Wakandan mine, that Ultron lifted Sokovia right out of the ground and into the sky, and that it was Ultron's plan to ultimately wipe out the entirety of the human race by dropping the city like a meteor onto the earth. Stark designed Ultron, gave it the tools and the skills to evolve the way it did, and, well. As far as Michaela can tell, he's not getting much actual backlash for it.

He's apologized publicly several times, in different press conferences and in an interview for TIME, but he keeps reiterating that Ultron was meant to protect the world, that that's what the world needs. The phrase he used was a suit of armor around the earth, or something similar to that, and while Michaela sees the need for beefed up protection from extraterrestrial threats, she's more inclined to try living, breathing people over an AI system or a fleet of robots. For all Iron Man's technological prowess, he's a man underneath the suit, and Michaela respects that. She trusts the Avengers to do their jobs when the time comes, but apparently Stark doesn't have faith in his own people.

Again, she's trying not to judge him too harshly. He had good intentions, and he's funding a relief program for the people displaced by the city being a smoldering wreck in Europe. She just wishes he'd own up to the fact that Ultron was on him, not the Avengers as a whole.

She's a little lost in thought, jumping from one track to the next as her anxiety starts tangling everything together, when she hears "Blackout! Incoming!" from the left, and she instinctively scoots to the side, giving Spider-Man a clear landing spot as he hops down from the adjacent building. He's silent as ever when his feet hit the roof, distributing his weight evenly, arms spread slightly to keep his balance. He lowers himself into a crouch beside her, and before she can greet him he's lunging at her and crushing her in an enthusiastic hug.

"You're alive!" he cheers, while she gasps at the strength in his relatively tiny frame, too shocked to hug back properly. Also, ouch, tender ribs over here. She manages to communicate that, vaguely, and he releases her instantly, scratching the back of his head as he rocks back on his heels. "Sorry, sorry, I just... It's really good to see you in one piece, Blackout."

"Believe me, I know the feeling," she says wryly, bringing him back into a hug that's less on the crushing side. Letting go, she says, "I am sorry for scaring you. When I shorted out everyone else's phone I did the same to mine. Hitting that car didn't help things either. I would've called you otherwise, I swear."