Clint and Natasha shared a look, as the full Avengers team minus Thor assembled around the table. They were currently in the conference room aboard the Helicarrier waiting for Nick Fury. There was Dr. Bruce Banner fiddling with his glasses, Steve Rogers sitting like the perfect solider, and Tony Stark monitoring everything.
Nick Fury walked in; on his heels was Agent Maria Hill.
"What's going on?" Steve asked, leaning forward, eager to learn their new mission.
"We have a new target for you. She goes by name of Eagle. Not much is known about her except that she appeared about two years ago, gets in shoots her target, gets out and leaves only her signature wooden arrow, with eagle feathers." Fury tossed several wooden arrows on the table; Clint picked them up inspecting them.
The fletching was near perfect, but he could tell that it was hand done, as where the metal tips and the balance and weight.
"So you want us to take her out?" Natasha asked, leaning forward.
"No, that is a last minute resort, agent Romanoff. I want you to bring her in. It's better to have someone like that on our side then our enemy. Especially if she is as good as they say she is." Fury told them, correcting their first thought.
"Our Intel suggests that her next target will be high level security, multi billionaire." Agent Hill passed out black folders to each member.
"So we go in, try to capture Eagle without getting caught, and bring her here?" Tony asked, leaning against a wall.
"That is correct. The target will be in Manhattan on the day that we believe she is scheduled to strike. Because we don't want you to scare her away, you will be going in under cover. Your identities are in the folders along with back ground stories." Maria told them, leaving the room.
"Understood." The team complied, starting to read their packets and getting ready.
Elsewhere there was a woman, about five feet seven inches, in her teens and with curly red hair. Dressed in a blue full length dress, and her red hair pulled into an elaborate braid, she slipped between the many people around her.
She was given rude looks and cries of surprise as she continued her journey. Her target? An old man talking loudly with woman decked out with jewels. The girl grimaced, thinking how much even one of those diamonds would cost if she was to lose them. Nodding towards the man, she then disappeared into the shadows.
~Eagle~
Up on a rooftop appeared a cloaked figure, drawing a bow and notching an arrow to it. In the shadows, sat a man, watching her every move, drawing his own bow and arrow.
Signaling his teammates, the lone archer watched as the Eagle aimed and shot, taking down a lone guard, causing discord as he fell in sight.
"Hawk, can you disarm her?" the Captain asked, watching from another point in the shadows.
"Yeah, I'll let you know how it ends." Hawk told him, touching his speaker in his ear quietly.
Sensing someone behind her, Eagle tensed before jumping to the ground, almost two stories down. She landed softly and then proceeded to try to run, always sticking to the shadows. She would have disappeared, unless Natasha hadn't stepped out, and the two proceeded to fight.
From the way, the two went at it; the others knew that this Eagle person was highly trained, not just in weapons but in combat as well. It took quite a bit from Black Widow to subdue the girl.
As she fell to the ground, her hood slightly slipped, revealing red curly hair.
"She's down." Natasha told them, looking down at what appeared to be a young girl, around the age of sixteen or so.
"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle." Tony told them, peering down. "All this time we were chasing a kid."
"Let's get back to base; I want to know why someone her age is doing this." Steve told them, looking around hurriedly.
~Eagle~
Eagle came awake slowly, noting the leather holding her to a bed. Silently, she tested the strength, all the while keeping her eyes closed.
"We know you're awake." Clint told her, leaning against a wall. "Don't bother trying to get loose, it won't work."
"Why did you bring me here?" Eagle finally asked, crystal baby blue eyes opening and staring at the man.
"Orders, kid. Isn't someone your age a little young to be doing what you do?" Clint asked, checking his bow, and not making eye contact.
"I'm short for my age." Eagle grumbled, trying to move into a different position.
"That still only makes you about… what… fifteen at the least?" Clint finally looked up as she tried to get her hair from her face.
"Sixteen." She tried to shake her head, but that only ended up with more of her red curls covering it. When the agents had grabbed her, they had taken every weapon, and medulla that she had processed, one of those being the ordinate hair clip that held her hair from her face. "Will you let me go? I'm not going anywhere anyway."
"Kid, it took almost the whole team of Avengers to take you down. I'm not letting you escape us just so you can try again." Clint crossed his arms, as the door behind him, letting in Nick Fury.
"At least my hands, I would like to be able to see." Eagle grumbled, shaking her head again.
"Who are you working for kid?" A new voice reached her ears, making her stop, and tilt her head slightly.
"I work for no one." Eagle finally told him, being able to see slightly through the unruly mass of hair.
"No one just appears out of thin air two years ago, and starts to take out key members without orders from someone important. I'm only going to ask you once kid, who do you work for?"
"And I'll only tell what I said before, I don't bloody work for anyone!" Eagle glared, blue eyes sparking.
"Then who were you going after in that park?" Nick changed tactics, knowing he wouldn't get any answers out of her.
"You really think, I was going to shoot Mr. St. Monti-Salvidore?" She started to laugh. "Don't you know that a trapper's traps can trap the trapper?"
"What the hell are you talking about, kid?" Clint asked.
"It's an old expression that my people use. I doubt you'll get it, it's thousands of years old." Eagle told them, grinning.
Just as the director was going to say something, Maria Hill came into the room and whispered something to him.
"Agent Barton, get your gear, you are going to go greet some people." Fury told him, moving out of the room, his leather trench coat flapping in the air.
"Hey! Don't I get a board game or a book?!" Eagle cried, as the two agents left. "How about even a piece of paper and a pencil?!"
Nick and Clint walked down the hallway, not listening to the yelling of their prisoner.
"Something about her has me puzzled, sir." Clint told him, as he walked beside his boss.
"Agreed. She acts like everything is a big game to her. She knows something important and I have a feeling that getting her to talk won't be the usual means." Nick told him, as Thor walked up to them.
"I came to Midgard to find the princess Merida of Alfheim. She went missing two years ago when the Dark Elves were invading." Thor told them, his cape floating behind him as he walked.
"Two years ago huh? Is she a teenager with uncontrollable red hair and a tongue as sharp as a dagger?" Nick asked, his one eye was trained on Thor.
"That sounds like the princess. She is one of the best warriors in all of the Nine Realms." Thor told him, his hammer put away.
"Well, looks like you're taking the princess home then." Nick and the two avengers turned around and headed back to the room which held Merida.
Smiling, Eagle held out her shackled hands, a waiting for her to released. "I knew my charm would get to you. Now how about these bonds?"
"Merida of Alfheim, it has been a long time." Thor bowed to the girl, when she was loose. "Your mother is quite worried about you."
"Mother worries about everything, Odinson. Now what brings you to Midgard?" Eagle smiled a genuine smile, pushing her hair out of her face and securing it with one of her gold clips. The two were walking beside each other, Thor keeping the curious princess from bugging the many agents.
"Just a visit, Princess. Now we must surely get you home." Thor told her as the young princess followed him into the conference room.
"I like Midgard, it's so interesting compared to life on Alfheim. Did you know that they actually race horses here?" Her eyes gleamed with surprise and awe as she looked up at her taller companion.
"As do the Asir, young one. But now it's time to go home and ease your mother's worry." Thor laughed.
"No fun. But Mother would understand won't she? If I don't come back, I never did want to become the Queen next anyway." Merida scowled.
"Ah, but that is your role, young one. If you do not do it, then who will?" Thor asked, trying to make Merida see the error of her ways.
"Well…there's Rapunzel, my first cousin, then my second cousins, Elsa, Anna, and Jokul. And let's not forget about my other cousin, the Dragon-Tamer. Really, there are a lot of people that could take the throne. All I ever wanted was to find my own path."
