When We Stand Together chapter 4
Chapter Title: This Means War
A/N: And I'm back! Here's chapter 4 people. Hope you enjoy it!Review replies:
-fezwearingjellybanana: hehe yup Clinton is looming in the shadows. Will he reveal himself? Hmm looks like you're gonna have to read on to find out.
Coughing, Laura moved her head timidly, trying to take in her surroundings. She saw Fury just beside her, beginning to snap out of the explosion haze himself. "Laura, you good?" the director grasped the woman's shoulder and looked straight at her to see if she was okay.
"Yeah" the reply came out strangled, dry and uncertain but it was good enough for now since Fury went straight onto his earpiece to find out what was going on. The engineer used this time to bring herself back to the present.
Once her vision cleared, the woman turned towards Fury who was giving orders so they could fix this mess as quickly as possible. Still talking, Fury offered a hand to Laura who took it and followed the man straight to the main deck of the ship.
Soldiers dashed past them, readying themselves for an inevitable battle. Fury was unaffected whereas Laura, watched each agent go with worry. She wasn't used to this like the others were.
They were almost at their destination when the director quickly pulled out a matte black hand gun and held it in front of Laura. "You know how to use one of these?" The engineer studied the weapon quickly before reluctantly grasping the thing in her hand.
"Only the basics. Your two assassins made me do a training day once." And despite the situation, the man gave a small smirk at that.
"You should be just fine then."
Finally they reached the control deck, Fury went running to his spot whilst Laura veered off to the side to go stand out of the way. Harper did a full sweep of the room and could barely keep up. Everything was moving a mile a minute. People were running around from one station to another. Shouting could be heard from every direction. Fingertips were flying across keyboards in an attempt to do something, anything, to help the situation. It was chaos.
Maria seemed to have a spare second since she came walking over to Laura. The commander came to a stop in front of her and held out a small earpiece "It's already tuned into the right frequency. You will only be able to hear me, Fury, Coulson, Stark, Rogers and Romanoff"
"Got it. Thanks." Awkwardly, Laura started fiddling the tiny thing into her ear whilst Maria left to do her job.
Victoriously, Laura smiled at her achievement of fitting the device into her ear. She could hear Tony and Steve working together to fix the engine and her smile brightened a little more. It was good to know that even though the pair had their differences, when it mattered, they could work together.
Maria continued to walk away when she suddenly shouted "Grenade!" and launched herself over the side rail and took cover behind the computers. Automatically, Laura shielded her eyes from the blast and watched as Fury took out his Glock and cocked the pistol before moving to hide behind a small wall. The engineer took this as a sign to ready her own weapon, which she did. It wasn't like she needed the thing though, Fury was kicking ass. Well he was until one soldier came around the corner whilst the director was distracted, all Fury could do was duck. Luckily, his deputy had good aim and saved him from a possibly fatal injury.
The director jogged back to where Maria and Laura were crouched behind cover. The two higher ups were firing shot after shot at the endless waves of soldiers. The engineer did her best but she never got a shot on target. Deep down, she knew her aim wasn't half bad, but she wasn't a soldier, she knew some of those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that were being shot down and she didn't want their blood on her hands.
Frustrated, she dropped the handgun onto the ground were it clanked against the metal flooring. "I can't do this" she said more to herself than anyone else, but Hill heard her and spared a second to look at the woman next to her. Laura's hands were grasping the sides of her head, probably her way of trying to clear her head, Maria thought to herself. However there wasn't much time to think as a new wave of soldiers started shooting at them with everything they had. The deputy director ducked back down behind her cover and looked at the woman next to her again, hoping she was okay.
Suddenly, the Laura's hands abandoned her head and she stood to her full height in the midst of the small gun fight. As if she realised something that was big enough to shock her into action. Without hesitating, Laura pulled her right arm in by her side before launching it out in front of her. The energy from her spine pulsated and sent a blue surge from her hands all the way to the enemy. Maria just watched, astounded with the woman's new found power, and slightly shocked about how much that attack resembled Loki's beams from the sceptre.
It was like a bowling alley. Those soldiers were the pins and Laura just got a strike. Four of them went flying backwards into a wall or each other, knocking them out and leaving them out of the battle. It was effective and no one had to die. Hill just shared a look with Fury, which again didn't last long when an explosion went off at the left side of the room. Laura's head spun around at the sound, she recognised it instantly, knowing exactly who was there in the shadows "Clint" she breathed to herself. Another explosion went off and she just about caught a glimpse of the archer before Fury fired a couple of warning shots to scare the man off. At least she hoped they were warning shots. The director didn't miss the quick glare the engineer set on him before they went back to focus on the battle.
Well that was pretty hard to do since Barton's last arrow hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer systems and off-lined another engine. Sending the helicarrier into an uncontrolled descent. The gun fire had stopped and everyone was back to running around, trying to fix the problem. But it was a futile effort. Stark was their only hope at getting an engine running again.
Fury called Laura over and the woman did her best to make her way to him without falling over "Harper, now I know you can pack a punch, I need you to back up Coulson. Go find him."
"Yes, sir." She then left and set off to complete her very first mission. This should be interesting.
Stumbling through the halls Laura suddenly remembered about the device in her ear. She raised her hand to the device "Coulson, what's your location? I'm coming to back you up." She waited for an answer. It took about two minutes for the man to reply, leaving Laura in a panicked state
"Loki's… Loki's cell. He's gone…" Phil's voice was drained, as if speaking had taken all the energy out of him. Despite the fact that the helicarrier was swaying, Laura broke into a sprint, trying to reach Coulson as soon as she could.
After running as fast as she could through the corridors, dodging people everywhere. Laura barged through the heavy detention cell door with more ease than she thought possible for her. Pushing that thought aside, she looked around the room for Phil, she couldn't see him. She began to panic again, until she spotted a hand around the corner. Quickly, she rushed over to it and found Coulson, slumped against a wall with a classified weapon in his grasp. He managed to give the woman a small smile but she wasn't fooled, she saw the blood dripping from his mouth and seeping through his usually pristine shirt. "Oh my god, Phil. What… What happened?" He didn't need to answer, she knew exactly what happened as she removed the gun from his grasp and took his hand in hers. In her head, she knew she was too late, but she denied it as much as possible. Her vision began to blur from the tears threatening to overflow. "Man down. Fury I repeat man down, send the medics." Her voice was shaky as she communicated through the comm link "You're going to be just fine Phil."
That was the moment when it hit her that this was all real. All this alien crap, this war. It was happening. People were dead and more people are going to die. Laura couldn't hold the tears back any longer, they silently fell down her face.
Coulson looked up at the woman before him. Even with the tears, he knew just how strong she had become. She had come so far, he thinks back to that first day he met her. A teenage girl looking to belong. Looking at her now, he knew that she'd have that now. With the others. With her husband. With the Avengers. Everything she ever wanted was going to be right there in front of her and he couldn't be more happy. He would do this ten times over if it meant he could save the real heroes like her.
Mustering up as much energy as he could, Coulson squeezed Laura's hand in what he hoped was reassurance. "Laura…" Sniffiling and blinking back tears, she managed to look at him "I know… What you're thinking and i… I have to, to tell you that this isn't your fault. It was… Loki. He did all of this. So don't blame… yourself." The man was out of breath by the time he finished his speech, the woman just nodded, not trusting her own voice to answer. "I'm so… so proud of the woman… you've become. You're going to be a… hero. Really you… You already are." He gave her that smile again and she willed her voice to work.
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you Phil. Thank you. For… for everything." The end came out as a sob as the tears began to flow freely again.
Director Fury was suddenly by her side, looking down at Coulson who, even in the face of death, managed to be all business. "Sorry boss. The God rabbited." But right now, Nick didn't care, all he cared about was Coulson making it out of this.
"Just stay awake. Eyes on me."
"No, I'm clocking out here." The man breathed in self-understanding, he knew his fate and had come to terms with it.
"Not an option." Nick replied sternly.
"It's okay boss. This… This was never gonna work, if they didn't have something to…" Coulson never got to finish his sentence. A choked sob feel from Laura's mouth as she buried her head in her hands. She felt Fury place a supportive hand on her shoulder as he too bowed his head at the fate of his most trusted agent and friend.
Finally, the medics arrived but it was too little too late. The director pulled the engineer up from the floor to allow the medics room to work. He knew it was too late but he let them work anyway. Everything was falling apart but Phil was right, he knew what he had to do to bring the team together, to create the Avengers. Coulson always believed in heroes protecting the earth from the things S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't and Fury was going to carry on that dream for him.
Finally, Fury called it in over the comms. "Agent Coulson is down." Just hearing the words made it seem even more real than before.
"A medical team is on its way to your location." An agent replied to his superior.
"They're here… They called it."
WHEN WE STAND TOGETHER…
Sitting around a table was Steve, Tony and Laura. The only three Avengers remaining, aside from Romanoff who was currently busy with something. God knows what the spy was up to but right now, Laura didn't have it in her to care. Everything was such a mess.
Fury stood at the head of the conference table, looking at the three of them. He averted his gaze to what was in his hands "These were in Phil Coulson's jacket… I guess he never did get you to sign them." He then chucked the trading cards onto the table, fresh blood lining the crisp, worn, aged edges of the merchandise. Steve just stared at them as he picked one up. His own face from back in the 1940's, tinted burgundy and his shield was hidden from view by the scarlet liquid.
Tony could barely lift his head to face the situation, his chair was swivelled away from the table. Laura sat there not knowing what to think and Steve held that card in his hand, observing it, a defeated look in his eye. Fury was telling them how he had nothing to offer them. They were dead in the air with no communications and no location on Banner and Thor. He admitted to his plan to build weapons with the Tesseract. But despite his plans he then went on to talk about the Avengers initiative, a group of remarkable people who could become something more. A team that could come together and fight the battles they never could. At the mention of Phil's belief in the idea, Tony shifted in his seat at the agents name. But it was apparently too much for Tony since he stood up from his seat and left the room without a word. Leaving Harper and Rogers behind with Fury. The director also made an exit to leave the pair alone.
Slowly, Steve looked over at Laura who was doing her best to keep her emotions in check. The captain placed a hand on the women's shoulder. She just sniffed her tears away and looked up at the captain. There was no pity in his eyes, only strength and belief. Belief that they could make Coulson's idea a reality. Belief that they could save the world from Loki and his army.
Another realisation hit Laura then. Steve was looking at her as a teammate. As a soldier. As a fellow Avenger. He thought of her as the same league as the others. He wanted her there in the field with them. "Steve, I… I don't know how much use I'll be. I still don't even know what I can do. I've never fought a war before." he just gave her a small smile
"Maybe that's just what we need, some uncertainty. A wild card. You don't need to be a soldier to be a hero." They shared a look until Laura sighed and rubbed a hand over her face, pushing her brown hair out of the way. She gave a small nod and the captain sat back in his seat. One down he thought to himself.
Eventually Steve left, probably to find Tony, which mean Laura was sitting there not knowing what to do. Well that was until an agent told her to follow him to one of the detention cells. After he told her that Natasha sent him, she agreed and followed the young man until they were outside the correct room. He instructed her to knock and wait for Nat to open the door, he then made a swift exit which left the engineer waiting.
About a minute later, the door opened to reveal the red headed spy, who nodded for her to go inside and she did, slightly confused by the situation. Well that was until she saw the man sitting on the bed "Clint" she said softly.
A/N: And that's that. We got the gang back together (transformers quote. Sorry). Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did then please pretty please leave a review. Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day.
