I am completely nuts, but I started another story. This is my first Avengers fiction, so be gentle. I enjoy getting feedback, so please let me know what you think. As alway, I don't own the Avengers, obviously... Enjoy.
N. Fury POV
The world was on the fast track to hell and the only people capable of saving it just tried to kill each other, clear cutting a city blocks worth of forest in the process. Perfect.
True, Loki was in custody, but something about his apprehension just wasn't sitting right with me. It was too easy. He came along too quietly for a supposed god who didn't want to be captured. Thor warned us that his adoptive brother was highly intelligent and could be extremely manipulative. Being captured was a part of his plan, we just didn't know how yet. My biggest concern, however, was that Agent Barton was still in the wind, presumably alive and under Loki's control.
Clint Barton was one of the best agents in S.H.I.E.L.D, having intimate knowledge of most of our operations, as well as being one of the most dangerous men on the planet, for someone with no artificial enhancements of any kind and whose weapon of choice was a bow and arrow. With Loki locked down in the tank, Barton was now my biggest concern for the safety of our operation, along with whatever Loki was planning with the Tesseract. There were just too many unknowns to celebrate the Asgardians capture.
We were all gathered in the control room, listening to Stark talk about finding the Tesseract. He was using language only Dr. Banner had the correct knowledge base and intelligence to understand. Stark may be a genius and one of our greatest assets, but he still got on my nerves. He could be infuriating at times, but had proved his worth many times over. Considering the current company, though, I'd be surprised if he managed to make it through the next few days without one of his 'teammates' killing him.
The operations console to my left began to beep an alarm. I looked to the young man at the controls.
"Director, we have a small, unidentified craft coming in fast from the north."
"Ah, that must be my assistant now." Stark said with a touch of relief.
"Your assistant?" I asked in a not particularly friendly way. "You told an assistant our location."
Stark crossed his arms over his chest. "Of course not. She found us all on her own. The ship she's flying is a new prototype we've been working on. One of a kind. An incredible example of innovation." We looked over at Dr. Banner. "You'll like it. She's bringing me some of the smaller and more important components to my suit. " He turned back to me. "You didn't think I'd trust your people with all of my equipment, did you." He looked down at his watch. "She is, however, extremely late. She should have been here an hour ago. Let's just check in on her, shall we?" Stark took a small device out of his pocket and took over one of the control monitors next to him.
Moments later, the face of a young woman popped up on the screen. She was wearing a pair of ultra dark glasses, but you could tell she was making a face that meant she was none too happy at being called by her boss.
"You called, oh grand pumba of science?" She said, speaking in a tone much like Starks.
"You're late." Stark replied.
"Yes, I am. Do you want to know WHY I'm late? I'm late because SOMEBODY forgot to properly calibrate and align the rear stabilizers. I tried to take off and almost hit a wall."
Stark shrugged. "Not my fault."
The woman snorted. "Right. It's never your fault."
"Well, I am smarter than you." He said.
The woman on the screen lifted her glasses onto the top of her head. To everyone's surprise, her eyes were bright yellow. She looked directly at Stark.
"You're only smarter than me because you're old. Give me another twenty some odd years and I'll surpass you. I guarantee it."
"Just get here. I hate having to wait." Stark replied.
The woman sighed, exasperated. "Oh, for the love of all that's holy. You know I'm only a few minutes out. That big flying circus you're on has already detected my approach." She pushed her glasses back down onto her nose. "Don't get your panties in a wad. It's unattractive and will make you walk funny." Music began to blare from inside her ship and the connection was lost.
"That is your assistant?" I asked.
"Figures." Agent Romanoff said from across the room. "Does Ms. Potts know you have a young, female assistant?"
"Of course she does." Stark replied, playfully offended. "Besides, it's not my fault. I only hire the best and it just so happens that the best this time is young and female. Quinn kinda reminds me of me when I was her age. Mentoring the young is a good thing, Agent Romanoff."
Stark walked out of the room and outside to the landing area. We all followed. The air was thin, but we'd be fine as long as we didn't stay outside very long. We all watched as a small aircraft zipped past, then swung back around fluidly. It landed gently on the deck, the sounds of magnetic clamps securing it to the surface. It was the smallest aircraft I had ever seen, obviously capable of carrying only one person. The top slide open and a young woman hopped out. She took off the glasses she was wearing, tossing them onto her seat. She pulled out an electronic tablet from inside the craft, then turned to approach us.
She looked even younger in person than she did on the monitor. She couldn't be more than 20, with shoulder length brown hair. She was built similarly to Agent Romanoff, but her eyes were still the strange yellow color. It hadn't been a trick of the screen.
She held the tablet out to Stark, a huge smile on her face.
"Ha! I told you! 143% efficiency over the standard manual controls. Man, it must really suck to be so wrong!" She gloated, watching Stark's face closely as he examined the tablet. "What was it you thought I'd get, only an 85% increase in efficiency?"
"We have more pressing issues, at the moment, then your baby's reaction efficiency. You did bring the keys, right?" Stark handed the tablet back to the woman. "And, by the way, you forgot..." She tapped his face, close to his eyes.
The woman gasped. "Oh shit, I always forget to take the implant out." She pulled a small metal box about the size of a contact lense case out of her pocket and returned to her ship, pulling a cloth out from behind the seat. "And of course I brought you your damn keys. Why the hell else would I fly all the way out to the middle of the fucking sky." She reached up and pulled a small silver object from behind her right ear. It had small spikes, which seemed to retract once it was removed from her head. She wiped the little device off and placed it into the box, returning the box to her pocket. She then took the cloth and pressed it to the spot behind her ear where she had removed the device.
She took a larger metal container out of her ship. As she returned to us, I noticed that her eyes were now a very normal hazel color. Whatever the device was, it altered her eye color when it was on. She handed the container to Stark, then pulled the cloth away from her body and looked at it. It looked like she was bleeding slightly. "Hmm, that's not bad. I seem to have just as much responsiveness with the shorter spikes and far less blood loss. That's good."
Stark cleared his throat, as if to get everyone's attention. "Anyway, everyone, this is Dr. Quinn Whitlock. Quinn, this is everyone."
"You're this madman's assistant?" Captain Rogers asked. "You can't be anymore than what 20, 21 years old?"
"18, actually. I'll be 19 in about a month." Quinn answered proudly.
"18?" Agent Romanoff asked, sounding slightly skeptical. "And you have a PHD?"
"No." Quinn said, looking to Stark, then back to us. "I have three. Neural biology, Biochemistry and Cybernetic engineering."
Dr. Banner stepped forward, offering Quinn his hand. "I'm Dr. Bruce Banner. With a resume like yours, no wonder Tony hired you."
Quinn took his hand. "Yep, I'm one of the top minds in three fields, where his genius is lacking."
"If you don't mind me asking, what was the neural implant being used for?" Banner asked, taking a closer look at the ship. The question caused an even bigger smile to form on the new arrival's face.
"The implant allows me to control the ship. Believe it or not, I flew here using only my mind. There isn't a single manual control even installed in this baby."
"Amazing." Banner replied. "A fully functional bio neural implant, used to control cyborg components. And you said you saw an over 100% increase in operational efficiency."
"143%." Quinn corrected, giving Stark another 'I told you so' look. "The glasses I wear allow me to see around the entire ship, front, back, sides, below, above. It takes some getting use to and some practice to control, and the implant hurts like hell putting it in and taking it out. It also turns my eyes to that lovely shade of yellow you saw, but that's all minor compared to being able to fly a ship with my mind." She leaned in closer to Banner. "You should have seen what happened when I put the implant in for the first time. I had the frequency turned up too high and my eyes bled. It was actually kinda cool."
I wanted to laugh. Genius or not, I could see why this girl appealed so strongly to Stark. Beyond the fact that she was young and attractive, she was also very laid back and took extreme excitement in her work. Given time, she might even be able to put Stark in his place once in awhile. That was certainly something the man needed, though I wasn't entirely sure the world could handle another nutcase like Stark.
"OK, you flew your ship, you gave me my parts, it's time to go." Stark said, joining Banner and Quinn by the ship. "Besides, you'll have hours of data to go over from this test flight."
"Actually, Doctor, can I have a word?" I asked, approaching the group. This was an opportunity I could not afford to waste. "You said you have a degree in Neural Biology, that you're one of the top minds in the field."
"I did and I am." She replied, curious.
"I'm sure Stark probably filled you in on the situation, even though he knows it is classified." I glanced over at Stark.
"Oh, you mean about a rogue other planetary nutjob stealing a powerful artifact that could destroy the world? Nope, I know nothing."
I folded my arms behind my back. "Well, this 'other planetary nutjob' as you call him, also brainwashed a few of my men. If we got them back, would you be able to reverse the mindcontrol?"
Quinn paused a moment, thinking. "Probably. If I can get a few solid scans of their brains, I'd probably be able to figure out how they are being controlled and should be able to reverse it. It's alien technology, probably far more advanced than anything I've ever seen, but if anyone could figure out a way, it would be me." She wasn't gloating about her talents, she was just being honest.
"If you would agree to stay aboard, hopefully we will capture one of our wayward men soon and your knowledge will be put to good use."
Quinn shrugged. "I'm sure I can go over flight data just as well here as I can back at the lab. You alright with this, Boss?" She asked Stark.
Stark pause for only a fraction of a second. "Just stay out of trouble."
Quinn rolled her eyes. "Please. You get into far more trouble than I ever could."
Agent Romanoff scoffed. "Truer words have never been spoken."
"I'll have you know, Agent, that I do not find trouble, trouble finds me." Stark replied as we all went back inside. Quinn pulled the box containing her implant out of her pocket, opening it and tapping the implant gently. The ship closed up and seems to go into a dormant mode.
I sighed internally. We already had more brilliant scientists around than we could handle, but if this Dr. Whitlock could bring my men's minds back to them, than her presence would be worth it. Clint Barton was an excellent Agent and cost millions to train. I wasn't ready to write him, or any of the others, off quite yet.
To Be Continued...