Chapter 2
I was startled by a knock on my door and realized it was already night time. I hadn't meant to sleep that long. Natasha was at the door.
"Hey I was heading to dinner, wanna join?vshe asked. I wonder if she knew about what happened and was pitying me. My stomach growled and response and Natasha chuckled.
"I'll take that as a yes" she said, and with that, she walked off. I followed after her, unsure about refusing a spy of all people.
All the Avengers were there eating already.
"Dells" Tony said, rising to meet us, "You did it?"
"What did I do?" I asked at the same time Nat said "You call her Dells?"
"Hey, it was that or Odie" Tony said jokingly before turning back to me.
"He's answering questions about his powers. By the end of next week I'll have a prototype drawn up!"
"That's great!" I said as we sat at the dinner table. I wonder if I actually had gotten through to him, or if he was working another angle. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder.
"That's quite an accomplishment, Miss Daniels" Thor said, beaming down at me, "Even I can barely ever talk sense into my own brother!"
"Thank you, Thor" I smiled. His positive energy is infectious. My mood improved greatly over the course of dinner, and I was sad to see them go on patrol again.
"Let's meet in the lab bright and early Dells" Tony said as he suited up to leave.
"Sounds like a plan boss" I replied, heading to my room. It's seemed right to call it that. I've learned so much from Tony over the week. On days Loki wasn't in the lab, I would go after my work hours to help Tony with his current projects. Tony convinced me to keep the card and use it for emergencies if that made me feel better. Honestly I've gotten too lucky. Which means sooner or later something will go wrong. Something always goes wrong. For example, the Battle of New York. I had been working in a nice coffee shop slash bookstore from high school until after college. When I didn't finish college, the owner decided to promote me to manager. She was an older woman and was going to give me the shop soon. I had been heading there on my first day as manager when it was burned to the ground by aliens with the owner and customers inside. I stood and decided to explore the floor. I walked until I found an exit leading to a balcony. New York twinkled against the dark night sky. I sighed as I breathed in the cool air. I wonder if I could find any of the Avengers from this distance. I went to Tony's lab and found a high-res scope he had been working on and scanned the city. I was so distracted that I didn't even notice somebody there until a hand clamped over my mouth. I was swiftly lifted up as I threw kicks and elbows backwards at my attacker. Why didn't Jarvis detect an intruder? Maybe they made the systems go offline before entering. I screamed into their palm as I was lifted past the railing.
"Nothing personal" a deep voice said, attempting to release me over the city streets. I clung to his arms and looked up at the man. He wore a mask, showing even less empathy as he sighed and struck my head. Blood began to trickle down the side of my face and I grew dizzy.
"Please, no" I begged, struggling now to keep my grip.
"Just give up" he suggested, "If you don't die now someone worse will come"
What? I began to lose consciousness and felt my grip loosen. Cool air surrounded me as I fell. I don't want to die, not alone like this. I looked up to see the man staring back as my vision blackened.