A/N : So I've seen Avengers : Age of Ultron this morning.. And let me tell you : it. was. AWESOME! God, I loved every second of it and it made me love Hawkeye even more (if that's even possible). Gosh, I'm excited just thinking about it. The characters' development is just... great. I LOVED IT. I won't spoil anything but I'm pretty sure Whedon secretly made the movie about Hawkeye. And, oh! Aaron Taylor Johnson as Quicksilver : perfection (Evan Peters was pretty good, too).
Anywoo, thank you for the feedback, nerds and I'm sorry for the lack of chapters. My excuse? Senior Year is slowly and painfully killing me. I'm so looking forward to graduation and college next year (I won't be saying this in September.)
I'm done rambling: here you go!
"She's stronger than you know, a heart of steel starts to grow."
by OnceUponAPenname
- Chapter three - "they took away the prophet's dream for a profit on the street"
BRUCE'S P.O.V
INT. HELICARRIER SCIENTIFIC WING.
IN THE AIR.
Bruce yawned as he kept staring at the screens in front of him. He had take upon himself not to punch the computers around him as he read the words – Research : Inconclusive -. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. For the last couple of hours, the helicarrier was been surprinsgly quiet. Couple of hours during which he stayed alone – except for the ten minutes during which a nervous agent had brought him a kind of specter to examine - when Agent Morse had left him. Again, to his surprise, the young S.H.I.E.L.D bio-chemist didn't make him want to hulk out and smash her against the walls like a rag doll. After introducing both of them, Maria had joked that since they spoke the same language – scientific language – they would get along easily. And the brunette had been right.
The sudden noise of footsteps made him look through the window. Armed and covered in black . were walking down the halls, escorting a tall dark haired man. The latter has wearing some kind of armor, his shoulder length hair was spiked and his hands were handcuffed. He looked up at him, his blue eyes examining the doctor then smiled and nodded at him before vanishing. Frowning, he looked back to the staff he was working on earlier and the file laying open next to it. Staring back at him were the deep blue eyes. Above the photography was written a name. Loki. Bruce groaned, rubbing his head. As if they needed more crazies.
INT. HELICARRIER BRIEFING ROOM
Bruce had, reluctantly, left his lab to go and meet others wannabe superheroes playing pew-pew – according to an extremely sarcastic Maria - in the briefing room. He swallowed the lump forming in his throat as he eyed Thor. Norse God of Thunder. Or alien. Whatever. The god was flanked by the Captain and Romanoff, both ignoring him as they stared at the monitor in front of them. Maria adknowledged him with a small smile as Thor nodded at his arrival, looking a little perplexed but not questionning his presence. The doctor sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he watched Fury interact with the other crazy god/alien/trickster and found himself weirded out as the scary-looking S.H.I.E.L.D director used sarcasm and almost allowed himself to smile when Fury took away like the diva that he was.
All of them stayed silent, considering what they had watched. Until Bruce grew tired of the silence and said, sarcasm and fake innocence dripping from his words:
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?"
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So Thor, what's his play?" Rogers said, ignoring the gamma expert as he turned his chair toward the taller blond.
"He has an army called the Chitauri " Bruce had to take a deep breath and restrained himself to jump when Thor boomed "They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." a
"An army?" The Captain asked, cocking an eyebrow "From outer space?"
Welcome to the 21st century, Captain, the doctor thought as he stiffened a smirk and crossed his arms, fingers playing with his glasses. God, he groaned, even his thoughts were sarcastic, these days. He sighed. Well, no one could blame him. Bruce jumped back into the conversation:
"So he's building another portal. That's why he needs Selvig for."
And that's A+ for sharing and communicating with others, Brucie! A falsly happy voice ringed into his mind only to be replaced by a loud grunt and some grumbled words he didn't try to understand. Bruce closed his eyes shut for a second before tuning back in and turning toward Thor. 'Cuz he was the one talking... right?
"Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist" Bruce explained after noticing the frown on his face.
"He's a friend." Thor retorted.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said, her voice almost emotionless. Key word: almost.
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him." Steve said, unconsciously falling back into leader-mode, his voice commanding "He's not leading any army from here."
Obviously.
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is full of cats, you can smell crazy on him." Bruce intervened, ignoring one of the small voices in his brain.
Brucie, Brucie, the loud voice fake-scolded and if the doctor focused, he could see Him shaking his head in dissapoitement, this is not how you make friends. At least, you didn't crush thoses puny humans into our fists. Yet. Then he laughed. And laughed. And laughed, giving Bruce a headache. Ignoring the looks he received from Maria and Romanoff, he clenched his fists and shook his head.
"-Careful how you speak" Thor thundered – pun shamelessly intended – as he turned to glare at him "Loki is beyond reason, buth he is from Asgard. And is my brother."
"He killed 80 persons in two days." The redhead deadpanned.
"...He's adopted." Thor admitted.
Behind the God, Bruce could see Maria hide a smirk and himself couldn't help but snort. Before he had entered the briefing room, Coulson had warned him to take it easy on Thor, to be patient with him. But the gamma-expert was starting to realize that the tall blonde was smarter that people gave him credit for. His amusement dissapeared when his eyes settled onto the hologram in the middle of the room. He walked closer to the table and frowned, asking to himself mostly
"Iridium, what did they need Iridium for?"
Cue Tony Stark strolling into the room, hands stuffed in his pockets and Coulson following close behind. He could see Maria rolling her eyes and scowling while Romanoff almost seemed amused by the billionaire's speech until he mentionned an Agent Barton. Same as Thor, Tony Stark a.k.a Ironman wasn't as people portrayed him. Sure, he was eccentric, cocky and seemed annoying, but it was just a facade. An armor. Such as sarcasm and indian villages were his Safe Haven. And he was pretty sure anyone in the room wasn't fooled by it. Half-listening, half-thinking, he almost didn't notice Maria getting out, following a bald man. Jasper Sitwell, he reminded himself. Again, as Bruce was lost in his thoughts, a minor part of his brain still managed to keep up with the current conversation. As Steve asked a question, confused, the doctor jumped back into the conversation, explaining the situation as a professor would explain it to a student:
"He got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Couloumb barrier."
"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." The billionaire protested, taking notice of Bruce's presence and ignoring the Captain's confusion.
"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on this planet."
"Finally, someone who speaks english." Tony declared, theaterically waving a hand toward his direction.
Soldier, God and agents watched dumbfounded as both scientists' shows and ignorance as both of them kept talking scientific nonsense. Bruce thought he might like Tony Stark, despite the whole arrogant-billionaire facade and-
"-and I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and and turn into an enormous green rage monster."
Until now.
HILL'S P.O.V
SOME CONFERENCE ROOM ON THE HELICARRIER
To say that Maria had been thrilled when she heard that Abigail Brand, commanding officer of S.W. and one of Xavier's numerous students,was the biggest lie ever told. Her dislike for the woman was known from everyone and anyone who had ever met both women. And the feeling was mutual. Still, she was an important ally and the leader of their counterpart agency, she had to bear with her while Fury was busy preventing the end of the world.
The brunette took a deep breath, tightened her ponytail before entering the conference room, a fake smile plastered on her face.
"Abby! Do I need to ask you how you got on board?"
The deputy inwardly groaned as she watched the slightly older woman scolded at her. She didn't look any different that from the last time Maria had seen her. Her green hair was in a french braid, resting on her left shoulder and her usual combinaison had been replaced by a dark leather jacket, black shirt underneath it and was wearing a matching black jean with combat guns were hanging from her belts, her usual glasses were covering most of her face and her hands were covered with fingerless gloves.
"Maria" The green-eyed woman greeted back, forcing a grimace-that-might-have-been-a-smile-but-was-more-of-a-grimace. "And to answer your question, let just say I have my ways."
"As long as I don't find out that you burned something and hurt someone to get on board, I really don't care." the deputy sighed, crossing her arms. "What do you want, Brand?"
"To talk to Fury." She spat, glaring at the tall brunette.
"Not going to be possible, he's dealing with an angry Alien/God that wants to take over the world." Maria retorted, her jaw clenched.
"My point, exactly!" Abigail exclaimed, causing Hill to jump slightly.
Not that she would admit. But she was a crazy mutant/alien hybrid capable to manipulate fire. That was scary.
"S.W.O.R.D was created for a reason, deputy" The green-haired woman continued, still glaring. "An agency that I'm directing and representing. Agency that, is supposed to deal with these situations. Please, pray tell, Hill, why was I not tell that a freakin' Asgardian is trying to take over the world?!"
"Maybe we didn't think your help was necessary, Brandt." The brunette spat, frustrated.
Abigail hissed, blue flames suddenly appearing her fingernails. Maria rolled her eyes and turned around, massaging her temples. Letting out a tired a sigh, she said:
"Look, Abby, we've got the situation under control. You're welcome to stay on board, if you wish, and your help will be appreciated."
The green-skinned woman kept glaring at her, her arms crossed and her jaw clenched. Maria mimicked her posture and, considering their talk as over, gave Abigail a stiff nod before turning around and walking away. Abigail watched, annoyed as the younger woman left her behind and as, the doors closed shut, she muttered:
"Don't say I didn't warn you, Mariana."
Then her hologram form slowly started to vanish.
TBC.