Chapter 1
The Huntress
The orange tiger lay on the bed, looking asleep. But when the man walked into the bedroom, the tiger's eyes snapped open, nearly as sharp as the claws that slid out from its paws. Its amber eyes fixed on the man, who stopped dead when he caught sight of the animal on the bed. When he didn't say or do anything, the big cat growled softly, as if to say 'get on with it'.
He cleared his throat. "Um, are you Naomi Carson?"
The tiger nodded slowly, flexing its claws and looking suspiciously at the man in its room.
"I'm Steve Rogers, and Shield sent me."
The tiger's claws stopped flexing, and it looked curiously at him, if still a bit untrusting.
"They need you for a mission. There's an energy source that comes from space, called the Tesseract. It's been stolen by a man named Loki. They need our help to get it back."
The tiger glared at the man, as if not quite sure whether to trust him or attack him. It looked away after a moment, as if thinking.
"Fury said he really wants you in on this," The man, Steve Rogers, added.
The tiger then nodded, and gracefully leaped off the bed and loped into the bathroom off the bedroom. A few moments later, a young woman, looking to be in her early twenties, walked out. She had orange, shaggy hair down to her shoulders, which she swept out of her amber eyes, the same eyes of the tiger. She had long limbs, a slender body that was almost without any curves. She wore a dark red tank top and black jeans.
As she walked back to the bed, she bent to pick up a pair of black boots. She slipped her feet into them, and propped one foot onto the bed and started tying the shoe.
"If Fury asked, then I'll do it." She said. "I'm in, Captain."
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Naomi Carson was leaned back in a seat on the helicopter taking her, Captain America, and Agent Coleson to the giant hovercraft that would serve as their base for this mission. Once again, she appeared asleep, but was listening to everything going on around her. Coleson and Rogers were talking about her.
"So… her," Rogers hesitated before continuing. "Her powers are that she can turn into any cat she wants to?"
"Yes, sir." Coleson confirmed.
"That's a little… weird." Steve muttered.
"I heard that, Cap," Naomi said, giving the super soldier a warning look. "It's not like I chose it."
"Then how did you get…" he paused. "This way?"
"We're landing," Coleson interrupted.
She spared Rogers one more glance before they both rose to look out the window. The giant hovercraft was bigger than Naomi could have imagined. Soldiers marched about, led by their drill sergeants, and there were dozens of aircraft along the top, where their helicopter was about to land. It hit the deck with a clanking sound of metal hitting metal. Coleson led them out and over to another man.
"This is Dr. Bruce Banner; Banner, this is Steve Rogers and Naomi Carson," Phil introduced them.
But Naomi wasn't paying attention; she already knew who the doctor was; a pioneer in gamma radiation. Everything had gone horribly wrong, though He now turned into a monster whenever he was angry.
"Oh, yeah… they said you'd be coming," Banner said, addressing Steve and Naomi.
"Word is you can find the cube," Rogers commented, not bothering to greet the doctor.
"Is that the only word I mean to you?"
"The only one that matters," Captain America replied. Naomi knew exactly who Rogers was, too. She had done a few Shield missions, and knew the people they had their eye on.
Another woman, one with red hair, walked up to the group. "They need you inside," she told Coleson. "They're starting the face trace."
"Hey, Natasha," Naomi greeted the woman. She and Agent Romanoff knew each other, and liked each other well enough, though they had plenty of disagreements as well.
"Hi, Carson," Natasha replied, not looking at the younger woman.
Naomi looked around. "Where's Barton? You two are usually inseparable," Naomi smirked.
Romanoff looked at her sharply. "Been compromised. We think he's alive, but Loki has him under some kind of spell."
Naomi frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." She couldn't offer any more condolences than that. She couldn't say she was sure he'd be alright. This was too unpredictable to say that. Spells, magic? Even with her own powers, Naomi didn't really believe anything like that existed.
Natasha just nodded and said, "You guys might want to go inside. It's going to get kind of hard to breathe out here in a second."
An engine of immeasurable size started up. "Is this a submarine?" Steve asked in wonder.
"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Banner laughed. Then the whirring propellers went faster and faster. They started to make the huge ship rise out of the water. "Oh, this is much worse," Bruce muttered.
Naomi just patted his shoulder and followed Agent Romanoff inside.
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"Naomi!" Nick Fury said in as happy a voice as anyone ever heard. He wrapped the young woman in his arms and gave her a kiss on top of her head.
"Since when did Fury even like anyone enough to hug them, let alone kiss them?" Bruce asked.
"Since he's basically been her father since she was fourteen, after he rescued her," Natasha replied.
"Rescued her?" Bruce and Steve asked in unison.
The Black Widow just shook her head and pursed her lips as the two that were the subject of their conversation walked closer.
"Romanoff, you can take the doctor to the lab," fury said.
"I'll come with," Naomi volunteered. "I might be able to help a little bit with the computers"
Natasha nodded and led Carson and Banner off.
Naomi's Point of View
I squinted at the computer screen. A strand of orange hair fell into my face, but I quickly brushed it away, intent on the screen before me. I stiffened and quickly closed the window on the screen as someone walked up behind me. I turned around, and met the eyes of none other than Captain America.
"What were you doing?" he asked suspiciously.
I leaned back against the desk the computer behind me sat on and drummed my fingers against the top of the desk. I contemplated lying for a moment, but decided against it. "I was looking at the footage we have of Loki."
"Why?" he asked, seeming startled.
Nosy, aren't you? I thought with a sigh. I didn't meet his eyes as I answered. "Sometimes, it seems like you can get to know a person just by looking at them." I muttered the reply, a little embarrassed.
He gave me an odd look, but didn't say anything.
"I know, it's silly," I murmured. "My mom used to tease me and my sister because we would stare at the school yearbook for hours, trying to figure out people's personalities and secrets, even though we had never met them. It was kind of a game, making up their lives just based on their pictures. That was before my family died," I finished. "I haven't tried to play that game with people's pictures for a long time."
He moved to my side and leaned against the desk, too. "You know, Coleson didn't tell me how you got your powers. He told me about Tony Stark and Banner, but not about you. How'd it happen?"
"I'm not in the mood for telling my life story, thanks." I said very quietly, my left hand going unconsciously to the crook of my right elbow. "It's not exactly something I want to make public."
"Did your family dying have anything to do with it?" he asked.
I started to nod, my left hand squeezing the inside of my right elbow, but I stopped nodding. "I said I don't want to talk about it."
"I just wanted to know," he said defensively.
"And I don't feel like telling you. I'm not the kind of person to jump at the opportunity to get pitied for my problems. I'm not interested in being comforted like a child." I snapped. I abruptly sat down at the computer and started going over Dr. Selvig's notes about the Tesseract, hoping that Rogers would get the message that I wanted to be left alone.
"We're not that different, Carson," he murmured to me.
"You don't know anything about me," I said flatly.
"I know you've had to adjust to how the world is now, compared to how it was before, when you didn't have to deal with your abilities."
I stifled a yawn. I didn't want friends. I didn't want to rely on anyone, just to have my heart broken when they were gone. So pushing people away was easier than getting close to them.
"I know your whole world was turned upside down by what happened to you. You think I don't know what that's like?" he asked, concern in his voice. "I don't want to know so I can pity you. I want to know so I can understand you."
I stared at the screen, not because I was interested in what was on it, it was just to keep from looking at him "Leave me alone," I said firmly.
He didn't reply, and when I looked up, he was gone. I sighed in relief. I tried to concentrate on Selvig's notes for a while, but it was all Greek to me. I was good with computers, sure, but I was not a nuclear physicist.
Nervously, with a quick glance around, I closed the file of Selvig's notes and opened the small collection of video footage I had had open before the captain had interrupted me. I stared at the screen, frowning.
Drumming my fingers against the desk, I tried to piece together Loki's personality, feelings, and plan by using the small clips from the base before it had blown up. There wasn't much. There were only a few minutes of video: from the time he had arrived through the Tesseract to the time he had gotten into the car with Agent Barton and driven off.
There wasn't even much I could really piece together about Loki himself. From what I could deduce, he seemed to be arrogant, for sure. Self-assured, I was almost sure, but at times he didn't seem as sure as he would like others to believe. That might be a weakness, but it might have just been my imagination; a desperation to find something to exploit.
Soon I wasn't trying to learn about him anymore. Soon I was simply watching the videos over and over again simply because Loki was… fascinating.
Oddly enough, I was interested in him. And not just for the sake of the mission. With a sigh, I shook my head. I shouldn't be thinking about this kind of thing.
As I started to close the file, Natasha said behind me, "We found out where Loki is."
I jumped as she spoke. "I told you not to sneak up behind me like that. I hate it when you do that."
"You're a cat aren't you? You should be able to hear me."
I smiled and rolled my eyes. She always said that when I complained about her sneaking up on me. "So where is he?" I stood up and stretched. "I could get away for a while. Wait, Captain's going, isn't he? Maybe I don't want to go then."
"What's wrong with Rogers?" Romanoff asked.
"Basically being nosy. I told him I don't want to talk and he wouldn't leave me alone." I shrugged.
"You ever think maybe you're just being overly defensive?" She asked, cocking her head to one side.
"Me? Defensive? Never!" I laughed. "Yes, I'm defensive, and that's my problem, not his." I ran my hand through my hair and then shook my head. "You didn't say where Loki is."
"Germany."
Late that night, Black Widow, Captain America, and I, the Huntress, were crowded up at the front of the hovercraft we had taken from the mother ship, as I liked to call it. Below us, there was a crowd running from a building, terror in their eyes.
"Now?" I asked, glancing at the two by my side.
"Not yet." Romanoff said firmly. "Wait until he shows himself."
"…And if he doesn't show up? What if he's already left?" I asked suspiciously.
The Captain put his hand on my shoulder. "We'll get him, don't worry about that."
I turned around in my co-pilot seat to glare at the hand on my shoulder, and then looked up to glare at him. He quickly removed the hand from my shoulder.
"Guys, look," Natasha ordered, pointing out the front of the window. A figure walked calmly out of the building.
"I said kneel!" his voice shouted loud enough for us to hear, even from where we were, behind the bulletproof glass of the hovercraft, high above him.
"Alright, I'm going in," Rogers said, leaving Natasha and me alone in the front of the flying machine.
I leaned forward, nervous, and stared out the window as Loki shot something out of his scepter at an old man who wasn't kneeling. Rogers managed to block the bolt of energy just in time. I let out a whoosh of breath in relief and collapsed back into the seat for a moment before leaning forward again, staring at the scene below.
After a few moments, I asked, "Do you think he needs help? Should I go down there?"
"I don't think—" Natasha was cut off as a warning flashed on the screen on the dashboard.
P.A. System Override.
"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?" a voice asked through the speakers inside the craft. Then a song by AC/DC blared out, the sound spilling out over the square below us as well.
I glanced at Romanoff, a questioning look on my face. "Stark," she muttered to me.
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Note from the LoquaciousQuibbler: Okeydokey, I know not too much happened in this chapter. Just please bear with me a little longer. This first chapter was mainly to introduce Naomi's character and to kind of show where she is the first few scenes of the Avengers movie. Next chapter, Naomi meets Loki for the first time. This'll be good…
Note from darkonesroses: hallo peoples! First off, Naomi makes me laugh. Second off, gotta love my sister's writing. Third off, please comment. And if you catch any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, my apologies, neither of us are perfect. Hugs and loves!
LQ: I AM PERFECT! IT'S YOUR SMEGGING PROOF READING!
Darkonesroses: jeez...