Chapter 2
The next day, Lydia, Steve and Natasha stood in the training room. Opposite them stood Wanda, Pietro and the Vision.
"Sam and Rhodey not joining us?" Lydia asked, slipping on a pair of fingerless gloves and strapping them up.
"Rodes is somewhere with the army and Sam is…" Steve faltered, "on a personal mission."
Lydia and Nat exchanged looks, comfirming their suspicions. While neither of them knew much about the search for the Winter Soldier, they knew how much it affected Steve. Lydia shrugged, and attempted to bring back a lighter air.
"Ah well, this'll be easier anyway. Honestly there's not much we can do for Rhodey and Sam, they're already military trained." She cracked her knuckles and looked at Steve. "Cap?"
Steve stepped forward to tell the group of recruits that they would be sparring for most of the morning, attempting to improve their general hand to hand combat without the use of their powers. "Pietro, you're with Natasha, Vision with me, and Wanda with Lydia."
The group nodded and split off the separate parts of the room, Lydia taking Wanda over to a corner.
"Question," Lydia said, "could you look into my head and know what moves I'm about to use on you?"
Wanda, "Yes, it would be quite easy, in fact," she said.
"How easy would it be to not do it?" Lydia asked. Wanda looked at her, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you see other people's thought's naturally? Or would you be able to stop yourself seeing how I'm about to attack you?" Lydia elaborated. Around them, the others had already started sparring. Wanda thought about her question for a while.
"I could stop it. Block you off, so to speak," she finally replied. Lydia nodded.
"Good, do that."
The two women stood for a moment, Wanda unsure of what exactly to do next, until Lydia suddenly launched her fist towards her. Wanda barely managed to block her, but didn't catch the kick to her shins, causing her to stumble. Lydia continued to push Wanda back, assessing her natural combat ability in her head as she went, noting each failed block and each successful attack.
They slowed to a stop when they heard Steve groan violently, and Lydia turned to see him sprawled out on the ground on one end of the room, and Pietro standing on the other. She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Didn't we say no powers?" she asked. Pietro shrugged.
"He was being too slow," he responded, "even for normal standards."
Lydia caught Natasha rolling her eyes as she turned back towards Wanda. She was just about to tell the girl to get back into stance, when the door slid open and Maria Hill strode in.
"Martinez!" she said, and Lydia straightened up. Maria beckoned Lydia over, and, with a quick glance to Wanda, walked over. The rest of the room stopped and watched the whispered exchange. Maria's face was serious, while Lydia's changed from confused, to angry, and finally settled on something akin to mournful.
"Training session's cut short for today, guys," she said, looking at them briefly, "Something's come up. Natasha, I'm gonna need your help."
A few hours later, Lydia and Nat were half way across the state, standing in a small apartment. Lydia stared down at the dead body of Jonathan Blakely, his skin stretched across his skull tightly and his eyes flat and dull. Wires protruded out of an ugly wound at the back of his neck, curling across the room and connecting to a laptop on the desk under the window. The laptop screen was black, but a small green light flashing every few seconds showed it was on.
Lydia crouched down next to him, smoothing her hand across his blonde hair and skimming her fingers just above the wound and wires. Sighing, she looked over at the laptop.
"He was reckless," she said, her voice emotionless. Standing up, she walked over to the laptop and ran her finger across the mouse, her suspicions confirmed when it brightened onto a word document with a message written on it.
Jessica, Lydia, Evan, Caroline, whoever finds me first, if anyone at all. HYDRA is after us.
She motioned for Natasha, who came over and read the message.
"Did he upload anything?" Natasha asked quietly. Lydia sighed and shook her head, beginning to click through the laptop, checking its files.
"I doubt it… no there's nothing here." She gave a humourless laugh, "well this was the whole point."
"We should get him back to HQ, see if we can find… anything," Natasha said,
"I doubt you'll be able to," Lydia replied, "But yeah. And we need to tell Fury."
Pietro found Lydia in the kitchen later that night, surprised she was back from her and Natasha's mission already. Usually missions lasted a few days at least. He slowed from his blurring run, seeing her talking into a phone.
"-dead, nothing salvaged…" she paused, the person on the other end of the line speaking, and then she said, "so that's a fifth of the Last Resort Gone… we don't even know what he had… yes… yes he did… shut himself down, I didn't even know it was possible to do that without assistance… very crude, ugly wound, it looked hasty… he was yes… yes HYDRA…" Pietro walked quietly into the kitchen, his ears picking up on everything she said, straining to hear the other person, but he couldn't.
Lydia saw his reflection in the window opposite them, and she sighed. She turned, showing him she knew he was there. He quickly scrambled for an excuse, but her calm demeanor told him that maybe he didn't need one.
"Yes…" she continued to speak into the phone, "We'll find them… he knew one of us would find him so it must be possible… the world is only so big… yes before HYDRA… yes… yes goodnight, Director." She hung up and sighed again, looking up at Pietro.
"Sorry," he said, "for intruding." Lydia waved him off.
"Don't worry about it, just reporting in on the mission earlier," then she scoffed, "if you could even call it that."
"What happened?" Pietro asked, before he could stop himself.
"A friend of mine was found dead," Lydia replied, slipping her phone into her pocket and crossing her arms, "he had some valuable SHIELD information and now its gone along with him."
"Who are you looking for?" Pietro asked. Lydia grinned at him.
"People with similar information," she replied, then sniffed and pushed herself off the side of the counter, "What're you down here for?"
Pietro looked around, suddenly remembering his original objective, "I got hungry," he replied. Lydia raised an eyebrow.
"You eat a lot," she stated, "I've noticed that."
Pietro really couldn't help himself; he shot her a wonky grin and said, "You notice things about me?"
Lydia rolled her eyes and laughed, "I notice things about everyone, it's my job," she replied, and then looked at him slyly, "But I may be paying some… extra attention to you."
Pietro continued to smile and looked down. Once, years ago, he's sure he would have known how to reply. Instead, he just said, "Fast metabolism. Part of being enhanced."
Lydia smiled softly at him, and cracked her knuckles, and moved to leave the kitchen "I recommend the popcorn if your looking for something snackish. Stay away from the ham, though, I think its gone off."
Pietro looked back at her, a smile still pulling at his lips as he watched her leave. She looked over her shoulder and shot him one last grin before turning the corner, leaving him to his food.
When she got back to her room, she ran a hand through her hair, digging her phone out of her pocket and dropping it on her dresser, next to her personal phone. It was then she remembered the message she'd gotten last night while drifting off. Picking up a hairbrush, she pressed the home button and glanced down at the screen. She dropped the hairbrush, seeing the message from someone she hadn't heard from in a year.
Jessica Mains: With HYDRA
So! Here's the second chapter! I hope you guys are liking it. Again, if you have any comments or advice, drop us a review :D
