Disclaimer: I own nothing but Willow.
Green is for chlorophyll
by Arasinyah
Chapter 1
"Damn it, how are we going to get her out of there without looking like kidnappers."
"Or mob enforcers."
The two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents watched from the car as a young-ish woman put on a magic show in the park. The full skirt of the vintage dress swirled around her as she bent down to pull a rose from behind a crying girl's ear earning her a blinding smile and the agents winced. They could practically hear all the complaints they were about to receive over this.
"I wish the Black Widow was here." Agent 1 whined and Agent 2 shuddered thinking of the last encounter between him and the Black Widow. It seemed to be all the motivation he needed and he girded himself and stepped out of the car, Agent 1 following close behind.
"We have a job to do." He said succinctly and strode toward the woman, the crowd of parents and children parting before him. He would have felt more like Moses before the Red Sea if they hadn't proceeded to glare at him viciously.
"Miss Doyle?" He said as nicely as he could when he came to a stop in front of the woman.
"I prefer Ms not Miss." She said in a voice that seemed to be made for laughter, the smile never leaving her face and she didn't even turn to look at Agent 2 as he tried to be his most Coulson like self. He felt the glares aimed at him intensify and a bead of sweat trailed down his neck and into his collar. He once had to go to a toy store on the day before Christmas to get his nephew a present, he knew how nasty parental units could be. Suppressing the shudder that came with memories of that day he took a deep breath, already regretting what he had to say.
"You'll have to come with us Ms Doyle." He could feel them stepping closer to surround them and Agent 1 practically splayed himself across Agent 2's back in an attempt to avoid them. But even worse was the reaction of the children in front of them.
"You can't take her away!" The girl who now had a rose tucked in her hair cried, grabbing Ms Doyle's leg pathetically and she shot the Agents a puppy dog look that made the parents behind them even angrier. He stepped closer to Ms Doyle in an attempt to get away from the parents.
"Now, now Millie we both know I had to go any way, it's almost time for us all to go home, it's getting very dark now and magic has time limits." Ms Doyle said, a mysterious inflection to her voice, making magical gestures with her hand and winked.
"It does?" Millie's eyes widened.
"Yes it does." Ms Doyle stood up and clapped her hands. "Everybody please pay attention it is time for the show to end!" She said and sunk into a flamboyant bow and people began grumbling and reluctantly clapped while the children wailed. "But because the show is ending a bit early I have one last trick to show."
Oohs and Ahs were in abundance and everyone gathered around her, the Agents quickly pushed to the back of the crowd by mom's with purses that felt like they were stuffed with bricks.
"What do you think she's going to do?" Agent 1 asked Agent 2 enthusiastically. He'd never been to a magic show. Well except for the thing with that Thor guy but that didn't count, a lightning pole could do what that guy did.
"I don't care." Agent 2 gritted out and wilted at the glare the father in front of him shot him.
Before Agent 1 could answer however, Ms Doyle began her trick. A pale blue smoke started to form at her feet, slowly crawling upwards until her whole body was hidden from view and with a crack the smoke disappeared, Ms Doyle along with it.
"Where did she go?!" Agent 2 panicked. If Director Fury found out they'd lost her, he would be Fury-ous. He made a mental note to stop taking on assignments involving Tony Stark and they fought and pushed their way through the now dissipating crowd to get to where she had been when she disappeared, hoping to see scorch marks or anything to prove she had been there and wasn't just a figment of their imagination. The spot appeared unmarked, nothing distinguished the grass there from the grass anywhere else on the park and Agent 1 and 2 were alarmed.
Their thoughts were interrupted when Agent 2's cellphone began ringing. It was an unregistered number but then most S.H.I.E.L.D. numbers were too and so without a second thought he picked up the call.
"Hello?" He said into it hoping against hope it wasn't Director Fury because he had no idea how to inform him that they'd lost Ms Doyle.
"I'm in the car, genius." He turned to their parked car and Ms Doyle was sitting in the passenger seat waving her hand at him. "I call shotgun!"
Wordlessly he pointed her out to Agent 1 who grumbled about losing his seat and they made their way over to the nondescript black sedan.
"Took you long enough." She snorted.
"We thought you disappeared."
"Neat trick by the way." Agent 1 said his chagrin at being delegated to the back seat disappearing once she pulled a tissue from behind his ear for him to wipe the sweat off with.
"Let me guess, you guys made field agents a year ago but because of the events in New Mexico you haven't been able to do anything agent-y because you're still stuck on clean up duty." She rolled her eyes. "I swear, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s training is getting worse and worse, I mean really, did you have to act like you've stepped out of a Men In Black movie? All you had to do was just put away the sunglasses and unbutton your collars, maybe smile a bit and you wouldn't be treated with as much hostility. I hope you aren't going undercover anytime soon." She snorted.
"How did you know that we're from S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"The gross incompetence." She teased with a smile. "And I can smell the stench of the helicarrier on you from seven feet away."
"Ms Doyle-"
"Call me Willow."
"...W-W-Willow?" Agent 2 trembled.
"You're the Willow? Really?" Agent 1 was skeptical.
"Yes."
"As in granddaughter of Juniper, Willow?"
"I just call her Grammy but sure, Juniper works."
"You're the most powerful sorceress on record?" Agent 2 confirmed.
"I usually go with magician or illusionist but sure, sorceress works." She shrugged. "Oh and it's second most powerful sorceress. Granny's better but she only uses magic when she's angry and when she gets angry it's usually the end of the world which is never good. Of course she also refers to herself as a witch so I suppose I am the most powerful sorceress on record but that's just semantics."
Agent 1 and 2 were now quiet. Before, Agent 2 thought he could intimidate her but now that he knew who she was, he was the one intimidated instead. He had heard vague stories about her, that even the Black Widow did her best to avoid her and Agent Hill needed to go in for a psych evaluation after every encounter with Willow.
This was not good.
Agent 1 on the other hand was now disgruntled. He had been excited about the magic tricks before but now he just felt gypped. Most powerful sorceress in the world and she used the 'You've got something behind your ear' trick? Lame!
"So boys, where is this road trip taking me?"
"New Mexico, we have orders to bring you to the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S facility."
"That's going to be a bit of a drive. You want me to just poof us there?" She asked conversationally while fiddling with the radio settling on a New Age Music station and he cringed.
"Poof?" Agent 1 inquired from the back seat while Agent 2 began sweating anew.
"Well yeah, like teleport." She snapped her fingers. "Like I did back at the park only long-distance."
"That won't be necessary, and we're not driving there." Agent 2 interrupted. He knew that his partner would probably agree if to it if only to see the magic trick and he wasn't quite feeling up to interstate teleportation. He pulled into the parking lot of a private air field and within minutes all three were seated in a quinjet, Willow sitting in the back while the two commandeered the aircraft. It took less than half an hour for them to reach the facility and when they did it was to a sight that was unexpected.
The entire facility was in chaos, men running around, cars being loaded and armed personnel were directing people to cars while a voice blared over the speakers.
"All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed proceed to-"
"Fury called me in so I could be evacuated from the place? That hardly seems fair." Willow complained, calmly walking off the quinjet and stretching her back leisurely while the agents went to Agent Coulson to find out what to do next. Before they could ask though, a helicopter descended on the facilities and Agent Hill followed by Agent Fury soon stepped out.
"Nick!" Willow said and while all the agents in the director's sight of vision took a healthy step back she disregarded the rules of safety that every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent knew and threw an arm casually around Director Fury who stiffened immediately.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Sir you asked us to bring her here." Agent 1 piped up before Agent 2 had the chance to say anything and Fury's nostrils flared in anger.
"Bet you wish you had hair to pull out right about now." Willow teased and Fury's mouth twitched into a hint of a snarl before settling down.
"I want you two out of here, evacuate with the rest of them," He ordered the two who took the opportunity to walk away as fast as they could without running before pointing at Willow who simply grinned. "And you, you come with me."
Willow smiled out of habit. She hadn't been very happy to be pulled away from her magic show, she hadn't been very happy when she'd been riding in the quinjet with the two agents and she was definitely not happy about following Fury around like a lost puppy. But she smiled through it anyway.
Her grandmother had always told her that when you smile no matter where you are, eventually the smile turns real. While Willow had found that to be the case often, she had her own reasons for smiling. For one, it freaked out all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were unused to emotions in general and for another it annoyed Fury very much and always kept him guessing.
"How bad is it?" Fury asked Coulson as they walked around the facility, Willow and Agent Hill following close behind.
"That's the problem sir, we don't know." Nick Fury drew in a deep breath and while he and Coulson conversed she took the chance to talk to Agent Hill.
"Maria, how's it going?" Willow asked the tall brunette sweetly and Agent Hill flinched.
"Fine." She hissed before turning her attention back to the two men. "It just turned itself on?"
"What are the energy levels now?"
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down we ordered evac."
"How long to get everyone out?"
"And shouldn't I be evacuated with them?" Willow interrupted. "I don't enjoy people wasting my time like this."
"Half an hour." Coulson replied to Fury, ignoring Willow.
"Do better." Fury said and they parted ways. Willow just stood there with her arms crossed. "You come with me." He repeated.
"No." She stood there with her arms crossed.
"Fine then, stay with Hill." He turned to Agent Hill. "I need you to make sure that phase 2 prototypes are shipped out."
"Sir is that really a priority right now?"
"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." Willow couldn't control the gurgle of laughter at that and for the millionth time Fury glared at her.
"That just sounded ridiculously dramatic."
He ignored her. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase 2 on a truck and gone."
"Yes sir." Hill walked off with Willow following close behind. "With me." She told the two armed officers who were standing outside the facility and the four made their way to the loading dock.
"Anti-climatic." Willow said, pouting as she watched the last piece of the phase 2 technology being driven off by two agents.
She sat on the concrete edge of the bay, swinging her legs with her head rested on the railing. Hill stood next to her waiting for orders, her hands clasped behind her back. The two didn't have to wait long, the second the truck carrying the weapons went out of their line of sight a ripple of energy was felt pulsing through the facility. Hill ignored it but it had Willow standing up and looking in the direction it had originated from, her hair standing on its end.
"Something's wrong." The ceiling began to fall off in bits but Hill still waited for her orders. Willow backed up and moved to a corner in the shadows. Before long four men came walking out the facility, none of them familiar to Willow but one of them stood out in particular. He carried a sceptre and wore a strange armour but it was the way he was trembling that caught her attention. Weak like a little kitten who had only just been rescued and might strike out in fear.
"I need these vehicles." The one who was walking in front said and Willow shrunk back until she was certain they couldn't see her.
"Who's that?" Hill frowned, having noticed the same strange man that Willow had but the agent continued in his path.
"They didn't tell me."
She turned around and Willow gestured for her to come closer to where she was standing and she almost made it before her radio crackled.
"Hill! Do you copy? Barton has turned."
In a matter of seconds, Hill was shot at, evaded those shots and fired off a few of her own as the truck sped off.
"They have the Tesseract shut them down."
Willow raced forward taking the driver's seat while Hill slid into the passenger and in a manoeuvre that made Agent Hill proud, Willow drove the jeep out into the tunnels with stunning speed. The smell of burning rubber invigorated the agent and she shot at the truck as Willow swerved to avoid a car that the sickly man had just blown up with his sceptre.
"Take a left I know a shortcut, we can cut them off there." Hill shouted to be heard over the sound of falling rubble and screeching tires and Willow swung the steering wheel around to follow those orders. Within seconds they pulled up in front of the truck and Hill got up, turning around to shoot at Barton and he shot back. When one of her bullets hit the car close enough to worry him he accelerated further, hitting the back of the jeep and it squirreled as Willow lost control of it.
She regained control but was farther behind the other truck now and behind them the ceiling that had been falling in bits and pieces was now collapsing completely, a wave of destruction left in its wake. They were nearly out of the tunnels when a piece of the roof fell onto the car and Willow grabbed Agent Hill's arm, teleporting them to safe ground before the concrete could hit them.
"You're bleeding!" Willow said pointing to a point on Hill's arm that she could feel throbbing in and Hill coughed, the dust that had been kicked up when the roof had begun falling getting to her.
"A bullet grazed me, I'll be fine."
The radio crackled again and Coulson's voice filtered over it.
"Director? Director Fury, do you copy?"
"The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?" Fury said
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." Agent Hill said, looking around to regain her bearings.
"And our friend Willow?"
"She's here with me." Agent Hill confirmed, ignoring Willow's complaints that she wasn't Fury's friend.
"Sound the general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that." When Hill coughed again Willow thumped her back gently.
"You should get that looked at." She gestured towards the bullet graze on Hill's arm but before Hill could react the radio crackled again and this time Willow shot the device a look.
"Coulson report to base this is a Level seven . As of right now we are at war." Fury said and a strange high pitched squeal came from Willow.
"Well," She said as she and Agent Hill exchanged a look. "That was dramatic."
