Hi everyone—so I'm jumping on the Avengers fanfiction bandwagon, because I saw the movie three times. IT WAS AMAZING. I'm fully planning on being busy with super hero films until 2015—Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, Green Lantern 2, hopefully an Avengers 2!
This takes place 8 months after 'Avengers', told from the first person POV of my shiny new OC Catharine.
Enjoy and review!
Nick Fury scared the crap out of me.
I know that sounds stupid—he is deadly, but he's just a man. It's not like he's a super hero… or a super villain, for that matter, but the man unnerved me. It would be politically incorrect to say it was the eye patch, but it was mostly the eye patch.
But even though I always wanted to run as far away from him and S.H.I.E.L.D as possible, I knew to come when he called. His retrieving dogs wore suits, and while my own abilities were fairly impressive, I couldn't hope to take down a normal human man twice my size.
So when he did call, I got on a plane and flew to Dulles. At the arrivals gate I was met by Agent Coulson.
"Miss Krueger," he greeted me, any expression in his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. I never felt much emotion coming from him—he was always so calm and collected, I almost felt like a normal person when we were together.
"Agent," I replied, following him without prompt through the airport and into the jet that sat waiting for us. It was sleek and dark grey, clearly military issue, and had some kind of adjustable thruster on the back. We passed underneath it to get into the body of the aircraft.
"Buckle in please, we won't be long." He said. I knew by now not to ask where we were going—S.H.I.E.L.D was one of the most secret factions of any government anywhere, and even if Coulson could tell me, I'm not sure he would.
After a smooth flight of about an hour and a half, we began our descent. We stood up as the back of the plane pulled down and we emerged into the middle of a field. The only thing for miles was a two-story glass building, normal looking, with two agents in black suits guarding the door.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Upstate New York." Coulson replied.
"And, what is this?" I continued to question as he led me inside.
"This is the new S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters."
I raised my eyebrows and looked over at Coulson, while we watched agents in S.H.I.E.L.D uniforms bustle about.
Coulson led me down the hallway directly in front of us, past a few unmarked doors, and then the corridor opened up into an enormous control room, with a large bank of windows overlooking the other side of the field.
Nick Fury stood at his perch, watching over all the computer banks before him. Agent Maria Hill stood at his right, speaking quietly. She noticed the two of us and motioned to Fury.
The director turned. "Ah, Miss Krueger. Please take a seat." He gestured to the large steel table behind him. "The rest of our guests will be arriving soon."
"And who are these guests?" I asked.
"The Avengers." He replied shortly. With a surprised nod, I walked away, beginning to pace around the table. Eventually I got tired and sat, but after no more than ten minutes voices approached.
I stood, unable to keep the smile from my face, as Natasha Romanoff entered the room.
"Catharine," Black Widow smiled at me and charged over to give me a hug. I know we're two badass secret agents, but we can be girly too. "It's good to see you again."
"It has been a long while, but I am glad S.H.I.E.L.D hasn't been in need of my services for some time. Always a relief when I don't have to leave Israel—the flight out is a son of a bitch."
"Israel?" One of the men behind Natasha asked. I looked over her shoulder and recognised Captain Steven Rogers.
"Yes, Captain Rogers," I answered. "Israel is a country next to Jordan which was created after World War Two as a homeland for Jews. Israelis and Palestinians have been in conflict over land rights ever since. You would have been a soldier-sicle for more than five years when it was established." Hearing a metallic chuckle, I looked back to the door. Iron Man was leaving his suit, having apparently flown from NYC. He was giggling inside his helmet. The redhead with him rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, have we met?" Captain America asked.
"No," I replied. "But your discovery was a big deal with S.H.I.E.L.D agents the world over—there was a memo and everything." I winked at Tony Stark as he gave another chortle. His girlfriend slapped him in the arm and gave him a glare.
"But you are… French?" Rogers asked.
"Yes." I nodded. "My… skills allow me to work for whomever I choose, regardless of nationalistic loyalty."
"Gentlemen, this is Catharine Krueger, also known in our organisation as Demeter." Fury interrupted from his seat. "Thank you for joining us, Miss Krueger."
"Of course Director," I smiled sweetly. "I'm surprised I wasn't called in sooner, to be honest."
"Why?" Stark asked. Apparently his amusement with me had ebbed and now he wanted to know what the hell I was doing there.
"I also have a… unique skill set." I replied.
"Please do not be coy, Miss Krueger," Fury said tiredly. I sensed his frustration with my loyalty to the phrase 'top secret'. "You aren't in Mossad now."
"Mossad?" Stark asked, giving an impressed whistle. "High score for badass-ness."
Thor had entered during Tony's whistle, and looked confused.
"What is this Mossad of which you speak, son of Howard?" he asked.
"Mossad is super top secret, lots of spies and karate kids. They're the Israeli version of the secret service."
"Thank you Mr Stark." I replied. "All right, full disclosure. I'm code named Demeter because of my abilities as an empath. Demeter was the only Greek god who was able to empathise with the human condition, since she had lived among them. I work for Mossad as an interrogator."
"You mean a torturer." I looked around to see Dr Banner looking at me strangely from next to Captain Rogers. He must have snuck up when I wasn't looking. I could sense that he was afraid, confused and just the tiniest bit angry—then again I suspected he was angry most of the time.
"On occasion, Dr Banner. Sometimes asking nicely simply does not get the job done. I also do freelance work for S.H.I.E.L.D, as both an interrogator and a hostage negotiator. Those are my more…enterprising skills."
"You possess more skills than those that you have mentioned?" Thor asked me.
Grinning like the cat that ate the canary, I stood directly across the table form him, concentrated, and held out my hand.
Thor smirked. "I assure you, mortal, whatever talents you possess will not work on a citizen of As—"he broke off as his ever-present hammer broke from his belt and flew to my hand.
Stark gasped in delight. "Oh, THAT'S cool."
"As you can see, I possess the ability of power mimicry. It is a side effect of the empath abilities. How can one empathise and understand another's emotions if one does not understand their reality?" Dr Banner was staring at me again, this time with a healthy dose of fear and guilt. I could tell he wondered about whether I'd experienced his reality. Passing Thor back his hammer, I sat primly in my chair and looked at Fury. "Now that we're through with show and tell, perhaps we could get down to business."
"The Avengers mission two," Barton muttered from the other side of Natasha, and I grinned at him. It was clear from the emotions I could glean from him that not only was he pretty psyched about this Avengers thing, but that he and Natasha had been looking forward to it for some time. Yeah, he and Natasha were definitely having sex now, as far as I could tell.
"Not just yet, we're still waiting for a few people." Maria Hill said from Fury's right. We sat in silence for a few moments before Stark cleared his throat and said innocently, "So what's everyone been up to?"
Thor, Banner and I laughed quietly, but before anyone could give him any answer at all, I sensed a few people approaching the room. Nervousness was the prime emotion, as was eagerness and a bit of passion. I suspected it came from only one of the three individuals. A few seconds later two women and a man entered. I recognised the man, Dr Eric Selvig; we'd met in the past. The women were strangers, but from the way the older one looked at Thor, I could guess who she was.
The demigod stood too quickly, making his chair fall over in the process. Dr Foster ran to him and he locked her in an embrace, lifting her off the ground. The younger girl that had accompanied Foster and Selvig sighed at the romance of it all.
"All of you will remember Dr Selvig," Fury nodded to the scientist. "And this is Dr Jane Foster and Miss Darcy Lewis." Introductions were made again, this time with less of a focus on me, which I was thankful for. Once we'd all sat down, it looked like a quadruple date that Rogers, Banner, Eric, Darcy and I had barged in on. Oh yeah, hadn't I mentioned? I was getting serious couples vibes from Fury and Hill too. THAT creeped me out. But hey, who was I to judge?
"Now, just over eight months ago we defeated Loki in his plans for world domination with an alien armada," Fury began, handing out files. "Some of you were involved in that mission, many of you were not. However, just because we put a stop to Loki's schemes does not mean that we foiled every alien race in the galaxy. It seems that there is another bent on our destruction."
"Ugh, again?" Stark grumbled sarcastically, opening his file. From beside him Banner snickered.
"I have been away from Earth for some time," Thor began, placing one hand on top of Jane's. "At first I was unable to return, then when an alternative to the bifrost was presented itself in an abundance of dark energy, I was forced to use it to reign in my brother. While the Chitauri have come to believe that to try to rule you Earthlings is a death sentence, another, called Thanos, disagrees."
"Thanos?" Romanoff asked.
"He is of the Titan Eternals, though he possesses a physical similarity to another race, the Deviants. While they are cousin races, the Deviants and the Titan Eternals are forever at war."
"And he's interested in outsourcing?" Stark asked.
"The Deviants believe their god, the Dreaming Celestial, granted them power over Earth, and that the other Celestials, like the Titans and the Asgards, took this divine right from them. Thanos has been mounting an army recently, and means to attack Earth."
"Fantastic," I sighed. "Based on myth, these Deviants are usually heinously ugly, are they not? Shouldn't be too hard to spot him."
"Indeed they are very ugly," Thor replied. "Although spotting him will be the least of our worries. He does not wish to live among us—the first time we see him it will be as he commands an army against us."
"So how do we stop him?" Barton asked.
"We have reason to believe he will use a number of mortals as pawns, a sort of advanced guard. Should we need the help of my army on Asgard, they as well as the Titan Eternals have sworn to help protect Earth. My father, Odin, is collaborating the troops as we speak."
"I'm sorry, are we going to Asgard?" Rogers asked. I knew that all the technology we'd developed while he was asleep unnerved him, and he felt dread at the prospect of space travel.
"Perhaps," Thor replied, and I felt the tension and the excitement rise in the room.
"Can't the Godlike simply stop them?" Jane spoke for the first time. "They rule above us all, they're more powerful than your father even—can't they simply prevent the Deviants from doing as they please?"
"I wish they would." Thor said. "I do hope we will be able to convince them that interference is best for all involved."
"We can convince them together." Rogers said with certainty. Thor grinned.
"I am glad you see this as a mission, Son of Rogers. Do you all share the Captain's conviction?"
"I don't know about conviction," Barton said, "But I sure as hell want to knock these Deviants into the middle of next week."
"Seconded," Banner and I said at the same time. I smirked.
"I believe the idiom is you owe me a soda?" I asked.
"How are we going to get to Asgard?" Fury asked. "We do not possess space travel technology of that magnitude, and it would take a lot of those little portals you use to get in and out of Earth to get us all there."
"I have a solution," Thor said confidently. "Some of my father's best scientists, as you call them, have volunteered to help you rebuild your ship and equip it to transport us all to Asgard. Now that the Tesseract is contained on my planet, it may be used sparingly as a resource for such means of transportation."
"Seems like you've thought of everything," Maria commented. I could sense her skepticism, but I knew she also had faith in the Avengers.
"Even so, using the Tesseract for anything could be dangerous." Banner interjected.
"Bring your people here, Thor," Eric reassured, standing up. "Between them, Banner, Stark and I, surely something can be done."