Authors note: Molpe will be meeting the Avengers this chapter. Avengers movie starts next chapter.
Chapter 3:
"Agent Caras please follow me."
Molpe looked up from the files spread across the table she sat at, each a detailed report on the member of the Avengers. She had been up all night after Fury and Director Coulson had brought her to the facility. She ran her hands through her long hair pulling it back into a messy loose ponytail before shutting Anthony "Tony" Stark's' file first. Of all the Avengers Iron Man was the one most knew all about, simply because Mr. Stark made no secret of any of his superhero action and tendencies. She had met him once shortly after the battle of New York when all Agents had been called to help with clean up. He'd been with a tall red head who she later came to know was his long term girlfriend and company CEO Pepper Potts. If she hadn't seen him there with her own two eyes she wouldn't have believed it but he had been there helping clear out the rubble.
Next was the file on Steve Rogers, America's golden boy. Molpe wasn't quite sure what to make of him. A man out of time is what the news was fond of calling him and though she couldn't disagree with that she had a feeling something lay beneath the surface, a deep sadness that he hid well behind being what he thought America needed. A hero. America needed change more than a hero but sometimes change only came from heroic individuals. She shrugged and moved on to close the next file.
Bruce Banner. The real worlds Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A brilliant man without a doubt, rivaling Mr. Stark in intelligence but lacking in well, anger management. A top notch nuclear physicist who got a little too touchy-feely with some gamma radiation. She frowned, that wasn't exactly fair, from what she had read his childhood had been less than stellar. An alcoholic, angry, genius father and an absent mother. She frowned as she read the last page, he had recently been seen spending more time socially with Black Widow.
That led her to her next folder as she shut Bruces'. Natasha Romanoff known to the public as Black Widow was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s two highest ranking assassins. Her results were nearly perfect, in fact except for one botched protection mission she wasn't able to find one mission that wasn't executed perfectly, and hell that mission was interrupted by the Winter Solider. Truly it was how she joined S.H.I.E.L.D that interested Molpe the most. Agent Barton had been sent on a mission to kill her but instead seeing her talent recommended her for recruitment. The two were extremely close and worked together on numerous missions.
Agent Clint Barton or as the world knew him Hawkeye, had been born and bred to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. After his parents died in a car accident when he was six his brother and he had joined a travelling carnival. There he learned everything from swordplay to his now famous archery skills. Molpe had seen him around S.H.I.E.L.D head quarters a few months before the battle of New York. He had been tasked with bringing in a rogue agent and Molpe had been in charge of interrogating the agent. The exchange had been brief but even with the little interaction it felt as if Hawkeye looked into her and saw everything she tried to hide from the world and herself.
And the last folder she closed was Thor's. God of thunder or recently realized alien of Thunder and Prince of Asgard. He had been sent to Earth as punishment but eventually found redemption. Unfortunately he brought with him his less than agreeable brother Loki. Thor was a good, loyal man and one that Molpe was excited to meet. She was eager to learn more about Asgard and it's customs.
"Agent Caras, double time."
Molpe looked up smiling sheepishly, "My apologies Agent Hill. I was just cleaning up." She placed the well read files into Maria's outstretched hands.
Maria smiled over her shoulder and back at Molpe as they walked down a hallway, "Have you been up all night reading these?" Molpe shrugged and followed behind Maria quietly. The hallway was long and well lit. Doors lined both sides but they walked past them all. "They've been briefed on your arrival. The team is preparing for their mission. We've took the intel that Fury gave us about Loki's scepter. They're leaving in 2 hours. Get ready, they'll no doubt have questions, especially Stark."
They paused right outside a door. Maria placed her hand on Molpe's shoulder and sighed, "You ready?"
Molpe nodded, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "Ready."
The doors slid open with a soft woosh and Molpe slowly peeked inside while Maria walked ahead into the bustling command center. Molpe had to work very hard from keeping her jaw from hitting the floor. There they were. The Avengers. She was standing in the same room as the Avengers.
Agents Barton and Romanoff noticed her first, both turning towards the open door and nodding at Maria in greeting. A simple arch of her eyebrow was all Natasha needed to communicate her curiosity.
"Lady Maria!" boomed Thor, "come to wish us luck on our mission?" his smile was contagious and Molpe found herself grinning.
"No, she's here to convince us to let her special little agent join us on our mission," Tony spoke without looking up from the file in his hands. Banner looked nervously around the room and out of the corner of her eye Molpe noticed Natasha step closer to him. Hmm, seemed the files were correct. Tony closed it quickly before looking right at Molpe, "So how did it happen, space storm? Gamma radiation? Bad tuna?"
Molpe shrugged, "I was locked inside a room with two other agents by a crazy Inhuman leader and exposed to a Diviner metal from an alien race called Kree, they turned to dust. I...didn't."
The room was oddly silent before Thor stepped forward, "You said Kree?"
Molpe nodded, "Apparently a small population of the human race reacts differently to the Diviner metal, we become walking weapons for their wars."
Thor looked troubled, "The Kree? This is grave news indeed."
"Grave news indeed," Tony attempted to impersonate Thor, "Bad news bears, we've got more pressing issues."
"With all due respect Ma'am this is no place for a communication specialist. Agent or civilian," Captain America stood towards the center of the room. A tall patriotic statue of good morals and heroics.
"With all due respect Mr. Rogers I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D agent and I'm here on orders. This is my job and I can help," she didn't know who she was trying to convince, them or herself, "Sokovia has seen war, it's filled with people; hurt, distrustful, angry and wounded people. I'm good with people."
Tony put his hand to his chest, "I'm offended, are you saying people don't like me?" He looked around at the others in the room, "You guys love me right?"
Rogers shook his head, "Ma'am we're more than capable of asking questions and getting people to talk."
Agent Barton interrupted, "Not like her Rogers, even before her weird alien metal encounter she was one of our top interrogators. More than one of my targets have been left in a room with her, she gets information. She's good."
Molpe blinked in shock and felt her cheeks turn pink and pride swelled in her chest, "Listen, I get that you're a team. You've fought together and that bond is strong but I'm the only way you'll get them to talk."
Natasha snorted but Molpe continued, "Torturing a prisoner is risky you don't know how long it will take to break them. Bring me and when you capture someone I can guarantee the truth and the entire story first try. No blood shed and no torture. Find me Strucker and I can get every plan he's aware of."
Tony spoke up, "Well I'm convinced, lets get going." She was sure it was sarcasm but she wasn't about to argue with the genius.
Thor nodded, "I will never turn away a helping hand."
Rogers looked at Banner and then to Clint before staring Molpe down, "Alright, but you stick with Barton until we get a clean way in. Afterwards Stark and I will bring you in, see if there's any information you can gather from any of Hydra's lackeys. If Strucker is there we bring him in and you question him at base are we clear?"
"Crystal."
