Coterie
By: Shadow Chaser
Author's Notes:
This story technically takes place after the events of Iron Man 3, but does not include Thor: The Dark World. IM3 has a few changes, namely it incorporates the events of Atonement in that the Avengers already know about Coulson's resurrection and that by the time of this story, Tony's gotten bored again and has rebuilt a couple of his Iron Man suits. Characters from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are briefly mentioned as is Coulson's new assignment.
Story:
Chapter 1
"They're certainly deserving of their name," Clint Barton shouted as he downed two more black-clad soldiers with balaclavas that looked like they were rip offs from World War II. But then again, he supposed that whoever was leading HYDRA now was perhaps not quite as up to date as what was fashionable for villains and enemies of SHIELD. "Take off the head of one and two more grow in their place!" he called out again as he shot three more without looking, noting the travel path of Stark high above them as he rained repulsor blasts down along with a quinjet firing its turret gun.
"May we need covering fire to the left. They've broken through-"
The roar and crackle of lightning searing across the left flank rowned out whatever else Phil Coulson was about to say over the comm. to the pilot of the quinjet before Barton spotted bodies flying through the air along the left flank of the enemy lines.
"…never mind then," Coulson finished as he fired his Destroyer-created gun, wiping out several more HYDRA soldiers.
"My question is, how the heck did they get Chitauri tech? I thought SHIELD was supposed to have gotten all of them?" Iron Man asked as he blasted several back with well-aimed repulsor blasts before landing and rolling to the side just as a Mjolnir-assisted car rolled into several more on the ground, flattening and killing the HYDRA soldiers.
"You wanna ask your buddy Rhodes? I thought he's supposed to be helping the U.S. Government keep the lid on the all alien tech that we've decided to share with them?" Barton shouted back before ducking as several blasts impacted the barrier he was hiding behind. "Shit!"
The metallic roar of the Destroyer-created gun stopped the peppering of fire as Barton peered out again and grinned his thanks to Coulson who was stationed farther back, having been the one to set up a containment perimeter and keeping civilians away from the battlefield Washington D.C. had become. Another blast of lightning followed by sounds of things being smacked into wet pulp told them that Thor was trying to keep the west side contained and Barton turned to concentrate his fire upon the east side as did Iron Man.
"The issue of illegal tech is being handled Agent Barton," Coulson's cool and calm voice only made an impish grin appear on Clint's face as he fired more arrows.
"Your team apparently needs to up its publicity if Mr. Stark here is concerned," Barton shot back, loving to rib the team of misfits that Coulson had put together to search, acquire, and stop illegal tech from harming the citizens of the world. Though he had been a little disappointed that Coulson had been reassigned by Fury to that project, he did not deny that Coulson's skill set would be better benefited in so many ways. The Avengers themselves were only gathered together if a situation could not be contained – the rest of the team members on solo assignments in the times not gathered, or were elsewhere occupied like Stark and Banner or Thor in his case, returning to Asgard. In this case, Coulson had personally called them in before leading the op on the nest of HYDRA sitting deep underground D.C.
"Delta Team, have you found the source?" Coulson had ignored his jab as his voice called over the comm. lines to the team that had been sent underground to ex-filtrate the leader of the cell for questioning.
"Negative sir," Captain Rogers' voice replied quietly, almost a little too quietly for Barton to hear over the roar of gunfire and other sounds of battle above ground, but nonetheless, he adjusted his hearing mentally to hear what the team had to say.
"We are close, sir," Agent Grant Ward, another one of Coulson's misfit team members called over along the same tone and range as Rogers, "Agent Romanoff said the bunker was built like one of the Russian Cold War ones."
"The Russian Embassy denies knowing anything about that," Coulson replied and Clint snorted his disbelief, "but it's nice to learn that they were afraid that their own country was going to nuke us and made preparations."
"They were more liable to eliminate them embassy in case they turned," Natasha's low voice rumbled over in Russian and Barton grinned as he fired several more arrows.
"What? What did she say? I don't speak Russian-oh, thanks Jarvis-" Stark's tinnied voice came over before he grunted a bit and Clint looked up, firing an arrow, taking out a jetpack wielding HYDRA soldier who had surprised Stark as he dove low and swooped up again.
"A lot of them swarming down here-don't worry, Romanoff, Ward, to your left!" Rogers suddenly shouted before the tinnied sounds of gunfire and screams came over.
"Do you want me to go down there?" Barton fired off several more arrows before looking back at Coulson who shook his head.
"Negative, we don't know the situation down there," he replied, but was keenly aware of the archer's feelings in not being able to cover Natasha Romanoff's back in the midst of a firefight. The only thing they could do was make sure that the exit was covered and that the three agents, one a supersoldier, were able to take care of themselves deep in the bowels of the underground HYDRA lair.
Natasha Romanoff twisted in the grip of a HYDRA soldier's arm and broke his elbow over her shoulder as she flipped him over at the same time. She fired underneath his tumbling body, sending another one to the ground with a bullet in his throat. Twisting, she lashed out with a foot, breaking the wrist of another one before clothes lining the soldier as he dropped to the ground hard. She knelt down and twisted his neck just so, breaking it quickly before punching another one in the sternum, hard. The soldier made a choking sound as she activated her Widow's Bite and electrocuted him.
Turning slightly, she produced two taser-discs and threw them at the incoming guards who were trying to get their guns to bear. They shook with the volts coursing through them as she ran forward and knocked both out by slamming their heads together. One of them threw up his gun and she grabbed it in mid-air before firing a spray of bullets across several others.
Her senses suddenly alerted her to something behind her and she ducked onto her knees, bending her back so that her head nearly touched the ground as she slid forward. The familiar silvery-red-white-blue shield of Captain America sailed past her head before a spray of fire from Agent Grant Ward huddling in his cover sent the three soldiers hopping into the air just as the shield hit them, killing them.
"Left!" she heard the Captain's command and rolled to her feet as she charged down a path that had been created down another corridor. She heard Ward following behind her followed by the clang of the Captain's shield as he covered their six, his footsteps heavy in the metal-lined halls.
Drawing out both handguns, she fired as she weaved her way in and out of HYDRA soldiers who were barricaded behind barriers. She twisted and weaved through gunfire and bolts of what looked like Phase 2 weaponry, a relic of the Second World War that whoever was leading them had apparently salvaged. She heard the pings of bolts reflecting off of Captain's shield.
"I thought SHIELD got all of Phase 2 after HYDRA was defeated?" Rogers shouted behind her.
"Supposed to have," Ward shouted back as he provided supporting fire.
"They've got Phase 2 stuff down there?!" even Coulson sounded disturbed and Natasha picked on a small clicking sound as she knew Coulson was already asking Fury about the fact that they found Tesseract-based weaponry down there.
"Did someone steal the Tesseract again Point Break?" Stark asked followed by the barest of grunts and then the squeal of the comm. as lightning momentarily zapped across the channel.
"The Allfather would never allow such a thing-"
"What about Loki?" Clint bit out over the comm.
Natasha ducked behind several crates, narrowly avoiding bolts as they gouged holes into her hiding spot. The bolts stopped hammering shortly after as Rogers' shield made a metallic whooshing sound before they impacted the soldiers firing on her position.
"My brother-"
"I think it's safe to say that Loki doesn't want Thanos out of that prison more than any of us do," Rogers' voice cut through the comm., "Romanoff, Ward, two doors down and to the right, I think that's the main room based on the plans we've received."
"Above?" she asked, aware that Clint was a little more than angry after being shut down so easily, but it was not her main concern at the moment.
Rogers nodded, "Hit them below."
She leapt up and swung onto a subplatform above the hallway and hurried towards the destination that Rogers had pointed out as he ran below her, his shield deflecting most of the fire that was concentrated on him and Ward as they made their way along the ground route. Pushing the door open she immediately fired her guns, killing two more soldiers as Rogers and Ward burst into the room with a clang of shield and gunfire below her.
"Romanoff!" he shouted and she immediately fired downwards, her bullets deflecting off of the Captain's raised shield and at that angle, penetrated two heavily armed HYDRA soldiers who had been trying to charge up a minigun of sorts. The two fell to the ground dead as she scanned the cavernous room for their prey. There! She saw what had to be the leader of the HYDRA cell and ran along the catwalks.
"Got him!" she called out, "dressed in...robes, running- he sees me!"
"Don't let him escape!" Rogers called out, but she was already ahead of him as she fired haphazardly into the crowd below who had taken notice of her approach. She could see the robed figure taking one look at her before dashing away, pushing the rest of the soldiers towards her. She hurled past the gaps in the catwalk ducking and dodging bullets fired at her before the shooters were taken out by Captain America's shield and the Captain himself.
Flipping herself over another catwalk, she saw that she was not going to catch up to the fleeing leader and tapped her comm. "Rogers, he's fast, I can't catch up. I'll hold these guys off while you-"
"Negative!" Rogers barked behind her as she met him at ground level, the two of them running hard. "We both know that, that's a suicide stand. Stark, Barton, Thor, he's fleeing towards the south side, at least that's the direction we're going. Intercept him before he has a chance to disappear into the crowds!"
"Skye, see if you can hack the doors so he can't get out-" Coulson ordered around the same time as Rogers spoke.
"I still can't get into the system-"
"Got it," Barton's voice chimed over, hard and professional, "we're-"
"Grenades!" Natasha spotted the small black dots flying towards them, hurled by the robed leader as he turned and gave them a wide smile. A part of her was surprised at how young he looked while the physical part of her was already reacting to the thrown grenades. She hurled herself behind Rogers as he reacted by crouching and placing his shield in front of the two of them at the same time Agent Ward stabbed a fleeing soldier and used his body for cover. The HYDRA soldiers that had been chasing after them also reacted by trying to turn around and running away before the grenades exploded.
However, it was not a wash of fire that engulfed them, but rather an acidic smoke that hissed and seemingly burned the edges of Natasha's eyes as she squeezed them shut against the sound. A gas grenade of sorts. She was about to open her mouth to tell the others over the comm.. that it was only a gas grenade when the screams started and she snapped open her eyes and stared.
A HYDRA soldier stumbled towards her making choking sounds and seemingly clawed at his mask before he managed to remove it and Natasha's eyes widened as she placed a hand over her own mouth and nose in and effort to control her breath. He was bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth, any orifice. The gas...it had-
"A type of nerve gas...?" Rogers sounded confused and muffled before she met his eyes as Ward mimed the signal for a nerve grenade and the three of them scrambled to their feet, stumbling towards where they had seen gas masks along one of the edges of the cavernous room.
She could hear the pounding of her own blood in her ears as her lungs tried to breath, but kept a firm control on her instinctive muscles. Nerve gas, or whatever it was that had immediately made the others start to bleed, choke, and scream was not something her body could handle. Through the thick smoke that permeated the area, she finally saw the glint of gas masks and scrabbled to pull two of them towards her, shoving one towards Rogers and one towards Ward who took it, fumbling with the catches and belts as she didn't bother with it and shoved it towards her face-
-And started to take a deep breath of clean, filtered air...the hint of an odd metallic taste that left a bitter feeling on her tongue-
-Natasha's eyes widened of their own accord as she immediately realize that it was all a trap; everything was a trap.
"No! Stop-" she ripped off the mask, already knowing that it was too late for herself, but knowing that she had enough time to at least stop Rogers from making the same mistake as she had and batted his mask away from his hands with the rest of her strength as she felt the poisonous bitter-tasting air coursing through her body. With a seemingly heavy head and eyes, she saw the young Agent Ward also come to the same conclusion as he threw the mask down and tried not to breathe. Her arms felt cumbersome as she saw him shake his head, a denial of what was happening. Ward was a rookie in her eyes, even though his file said otherwise; it was why she had picked him to be their third team member…after all, she had personally trained him in infiltration techniques.
"P-Poisoned," she breathed out, clamping a hand over her own mouth in a futile effort to not breathe in anymore of the gaseous air and coughed.
"Natasha! Don't-" Rogers' voice was muffled in her ears as she felt her own body collapse underneath her, barely caught by him.
She smiled as she looked up at him, noting that her eyes were blurring as she sucked in a small breath to stop the coughing, "Too late-"
"Nat, Nat?!" Clint's voice barked distantly in her ear and she felt oddly touched by the worry she heard. There were not that many people that were concerned about her. She could feel the vicious fire burning in her veins, the leaden feeling of her body shutting down. She was aware of the pounding of her own heartbeat in her ears; a rhythmic quality she thought was slowing down as she realized that Clint was still calling her name.
She wanted to respond to that voice, to tell him that everything was all right, that this was okay, but somehow, she could not make her mouth work. She thought she saw the shadow of Clint's face in a pair of brown eyes that appeared in her vision – eyes she should have known, but then everything was shadowed after that…
As a team leader, and secretly third-in-command of SHIELD after Director Fury and Agent Hill, Agent Phil Coulson always kept his cool as best as he could under stressful circumstances. However, there was always one thing he knew that could send him over the edge – was that the impossible was not possible. There was always a way, always a solution. He rarely lost his temper, though it seemed to happen a lot more lately – but he supposed it was still him readjusting to the fact that he was clinically dead and brought back to life – but listening to Romanoff tell the others that it was a nerve gas of sorts before succumbing to it herself nearly made him lose it.
He gritted his teeth and breathed out quietly through them, "Delta Team, fallback to the waypoint. Medical evac is on their way. Stark, Thor, Agent May, light those escaping bastards up. We need to capture their leader."
"Roger that," May echoed as did Thor and Stark in their own way, Stark with a whoop.
"Skye, any luck?" he called out.
"Sorry, nothing-"
"Keep at it," he knew it was somewhat of a futile effort, especially with Skye, and Fitz-Simmons working on hacking in, but if the three of them could not get in at this juncture, then they probably could not hack in for the next few minutes.
"Come on Ward, stay with me," he heard Rogers' muffled voice come over and wondered what the super soldier was doing, speaking when he was not supposed to be breathing in the air down there. He belatedly realized that perhaps the poisonous gas had not affected the super soldier as much as it had affected Romanoff and now Ward.
"Sir, I can-"
"Negative Barton," he shook his head at Clint's plea who had turned back to look at him while downing several HYDRA soldiers. They were thinning out and he finally stood up from his cover, hefting the Destroyer-weapon as the last of the soldiers died or surrendered to the incoming military and police force.
"Come on," he gestured for Barton to follow him as the archer gave him a dark look, but Coulson was having none of it. He knew Barton wanted to meet with the medical evac that was taking Romanoff, Ward, and Rogers back to the Helicarrier, but at the same time, Barton needed a reminder that he was first an Agent, no matter the circumstances and the mission needed to be completed.
They had only taken a few steps before Stark's curse crackled across the comm. followed by May's surprised exclamation.
"Report!" Coulson ordered, immediately stopping and staring at the distance where he had sent the three. He could see the black form of the quinjet hovering in the distance.
"The guy just…upped and disappeared! Like…"
"It was like seeing my brother cloak himself in shadow," Thor finished for Stark, his tone a little disturbed.
"Sir, he may be an unregistered gifted we do not know about-" Melinda May started before being cut off by Stark.
"Oh hey…he left a small sphere of sorts," Stark suddenly commented, "Jarvis, can you isolate it-yeah, okay, thanks. I'm bringing this back with us to the Helicarrier. Fury can have a field day with it."
"Oh yay, more toys to play with!" Simmons' excited voice came over the comm. and Coulson shook his head a little.
"Simmons," he warned.
"Got it, got it," she apologized, "and I think we're almost…yes! We got it! Skye, can you-"
"Wow…check out these encryption files! It's like…totally a different language almost-wait, nope, just ones and zeroes…" Skye murmured over the comm.
Coulson tuned out the rest of what Skye was saying, filing it away as something to ask her about later, besides renewing the fact that she still did not follow protocol. Having her work with Fitz-Simmons was also probably to blame, but then again, if anyone had adopted Skye into the fold of his operation, it was the two inseparable eggheads.
"Sir, no other hostiles to report. D.C. SWAT, National Guard, and police force are swarming in," May's crisp voice reported over the comm. drowning out whatever Skye and Simmons were babbling about.
"All right May, pick the others up," he nodded mostly to himself before pointing to Barton, "you and I are taking the medical evac shuttle back."
"Yes sir," he knew that Barton was too much of a professional to make a snarky comment, but nonetheless felt the heat of an 'I told you so' look in the archer's eyes. He ignored it as he and Barton made their way to the medical quinjet, noting that Rogers and Ward were already sitting in the jumpseats. The good Captain had an oxygen mask over his own mouth and looked relatively okay, but Ward seemed the opposite, seemingly lethargic as medics crowded around him.
Romanoff was already lying prone on a stretcher, and Coulson frowned as he noted how translucent she looked. Her already pale features were only accented by the stark blue of her veins as a few other medical personnel swarmed her body. As he went up the ramp, he immediately stepped to the side as Barton barreled through, his gaze fixed on her before standing at the foot of the stretcher, staring down at her.
"Take off," he called to the pilot who was peering from the cockpit and the man nodded as Coulson grabbed a handhold, the quinjet's ramp shutting before the unsettled feeling of it rising vertically signaled that it was taking off.
"Captain?" he glanced over to his idol who, truth be told, looked like he had seen better days. Dirt, sweat, and bruises caked parts of his face and hair while his uniform was torn up in some places. There was also the telltale sign of bullets that impacted the Kevlar vest he wore with his uniform, but otherwise, Rogers seemed fine.
"She knew, right off the bat. Even faster than I picked it up, but she knew and tried to warn us at the cost of her own life-"
"She's not dead," Barton's voice was tight with anger and something that Coulson did not want to identify. It was certainly not anguish or pity, but rather, something that Coulson had not heard in a very long time coming from Agent Clint Barton.
Rogers closed his mouth, nodding his affirmation, but Coulson could already read in his eyes the acceptance that another soldier, another ally and perhaps friend was about to die under his command. He was not saying the words like someone who wanted a person to be alive, but to tell someone else that she had died or will die a hero. He could only smile weakly at Rogers as the quinjet flew back towards the Helicarrier.
It was about half-hour later that Coulson found himself sitting in the main briefing room aboard the Helicarrier, his back to the bustling bridge. Agent Ward had fallen unconscious as they had landed, the medics taking him and Romanoff to the medical ward. Rogers had also been ordered there by Fury himself as a precaution and the super soldier had nodded his assent before heading over.
"Dr. Streiten says that they're stabilized as best as he could make them considering the circumstances," Barton announced as he walked in, hefting his bow to his other hand as he took the nearest seat to the door that would have led to the medical ward. "Captain Rogers is still being checked out."
"Good to know," Fury stood at the threshold in between the bridge and the briefing table, "Stark?"
"Yeah," Coulson turned to see Stark pull out a small black spherical object holding it in between the armored joints of his fingers. His Mark Z-II Iron Man armor had a similar paint scheme as his old Mark II, but with little added copper-colored nuggets added in between. "Don't worry folks, Jarvis says he neutralized the activating mechanism so we all don't have to breathe in poisonous air."
"Did he figure out what it is?" Fury asked.
"Err…no. I can run a full spectral analysis back at my R&D labs at Stark Tower in New York-"
"Fitz-Simmons can take a crack at it-"
"No, I need your team on another case. Something's come up while you were dealing with D.C.," Fury shook his head and Coulson felt a twinge of disappointment, but brushed it away just as quickly. He went where the mission was most important and if Fury wanted his team to investigate something else other than what was recovered at the HYDRA base then they would do so.
"No offense Coulson, but your team's kind of SHIELD. Stark Tech is a little better-"
"Says the man who provided a lot of our tech," Fury countered and Stark just smiled.
"Old tech. I get to invent new ones!" the man replied cheekily before sobering a little, "and I'm going to bring Banner into this."
"You think you know where to find him-"
"He's in Calcutta, again," Stark shrugged as if finding Bruce Banner whom had truly fallen off the grid since the incident with Loki and Thanos, was such a hard thing. Coulson made a mental note that Stark was probably the one hiding him before the man shook his head, "no, I will not to be used as his leverage if you want him in the future-"
"I did not say-"
"No you didn't, but you were thinking it. I know. Anyways, he's in Calcutta so if you don't mind I'd like to bring him on to check this little thing out. He can probably isolate the compound within and hopefully provide a cure or at least something to reverse its effects. That way Romanoff and…Ward, right? Yeah, Ward, don't have to be like this for long."
"We have other scientists-"
"Sure. But I'm willing to bet that Fitz-Simmons, whomever they are, are probably your best," Stark directed a slightly toothy smile at Coulson who knew what the billionaire was playing at, "and they're the best because why else would Coulson hand-pick them to be on his team? So since you've basically said that his team has another assignment, you need me more than Fitz-Simmons."
Fury only glared with his one eye at Stark before Thor unexpectedly reached over and plucked the little spherical object out of Stark's hands. "Hey wait-"
"This…this has…what did those who succumbed to its poison look like?" Thor abruptly asked, rolling the thing around his massive fingers.
"We do not know-"
"They fell to the ground, like they were suddenly shot with a bullet point blank range," Rogers' voice, a little stronger than what it had been on the quinjet, spoke up from the doorway. The soldier looked at Fury, "Sir, permission to join the briefing."
"Granted," Fury nodded as Rogers took the empty seat next to Coulson, "Thor, the ones at ground zero of the grenades looked like they had been shot, instantly falling to the ground dead. Those at the peripheral edges looked like they were hit by nerve gas instead. It didn't burn, but it did hiss and sizzle, like listening to a bunch of angry rattlesnakes."
If it was possible Thor looked even more disturbed and Coulson immediately knew that Thor had an inkling of what they were dealing with.
"They bled out and their blood looked black and was thickened, almost acidic. I don't know what Agent Ward and Romanoff saw or felt, but I could feel the blood from the victims burning me. That's what was burning, like the venom of snakebite or something like that."
Thor frowned as he nodded absently before giving the small spherical object back to Stark, "Director, if you do not have need of me, I wish to return to Asgard to seek my own consultation. I believe it would benefit the situation here should my consultation prove fruitful."
"This…consultation…wouldn't happen to be Loki would it?" Fury was having none of the evasiveness that Thor was trying to achieve.
"Yes," the God of Thunder replied steadily before raising his chin a little, "there is magicks within those spheres. The man of iron's-"
"For once can you just call it the Iron Man suit?" Stark groused almost under his breath.
"-familiar, this Jarvis, says it is contained, but it is only a temporary measure. I suggest placing it in an unbreakable tightly sealed container until it could be studied further. I wish to consult with my brother about what is within those spheres. It may be the key to finding out whom HYDRA's newest leader is and perhaps the reason why he seemed to step into the shadows like my brother."
"You think maybe its Loki's fault? Like he sent someone to do his dirty work again on Earth-"
"My brother would not do such a thing-"
"Regardless, permission granted Thor. Just…if it's really one of Loki's schemes-" Fury waved a hand to cut Barton off from saying anything else.
"He would answer to it by my hand and by the Allfather's," Thor nodded once. "Thank you."
"All right, the rest of you stand down, get yourselves checked out by Medical, yes even you Captain. I know you were cleared, but we just want to make sure it's not a delayed reaction to the poison or whatever it is due to your super soldier status."
Coulson stood up as the briefing ended and watched the others file out before Fury turned and picked a thumb drive that had been sitting at his station and handed to him. "Your crew has twenty-four hour leave before I need them back in the field. Agent Ward will be staying with the Helicarrier for now, but this can't wait. I'm assigning a temporary sniper to your group until Ward is better."
"Yes sir," Coulson was too professional to let his disappointment at receiving a new assignment instead of pursuing the follow-up lead to the D.C. one and took the thumb drive.
"Check in with Dr. Streiten before you head out on leave," Fury said and Coulson nodded once before he headed from the bridge to Medical. At least he could check in on Romanoff and Ward before leaving.