The steady beeping of the StarkPad nearly caused Natasha to grin- something that hadn't happened for seven months.
The moment the first buzz sounded, three hands snapped out for the thin tablet lying innocently on the marble coffee table. Clint's fingers managed to brush over the slim pad, while Thor's meaty fist barely reached the edge of the sofa before the third hand snatched the device up. Natasha was a little surprised. She didn't know Clint had gotten that fast.
The assassin bent eagerly over the StarkPad, leaving the two men to crane over her shoulder. All three raked their eyes over the image on the screen, taking in the rolling green humps and chalky cliffs. Thor frowned.
"Where is this green land? I do not recognize it."
"Hold on, big guy, the coordinates are still coming up," Natasha said.
"Coordinates to what? If it's a chocolate shop, I want in," a familiar, infuriating voice called from across the room. Natasha rolled her eyes.
"Don't get your hopes up, Stark. We found the file for Thor's mission and used the video SHIELD took to trace his opponent."
Clint whistled. "That girl's a piece of work. She was creaming Thor."
Thor huffed indignantly. "I was not being creamed by my adversary. We were very evenly-"
"Really?" Tony asked, a grin widening on his face. "Do you still have it?"
"Oh, yeah. Natasha, show him the video." The assassin swiped the satellite page closed and tapped on a black and silver SHIELD app installed on the tablet, a fixture that she'd already reminded herself to report to Fury. The mission feed popped up right away.
Tony leaned over the couch as it began to play, whistling. "Great quality for a field camera. Wonder how much SHIELD paid for that."
"Watch the video, Tony," Natasha drawled.
"I am watching, Natasha. See my eyes? This is called watching." The female shot him a warning glare. The billionaire rolled his eyes, shutting up.
The video continued to play scenes of Thor walking down paths in Central Park. After a while, the genius started shifting. Before he could open his mouth again, the spies each held up a finger, then pointed to the screen. Video-Thor turned off of his road onto a wide stretch of green. A few more steps, and his to-be opponent came into view.
Next to her, Tony sucked in a breath. Natasha glanced over for a second before lowering her vision back to the screen. Whatever they were, the billionaire's comments could wait for afterwards.
On the StarkPad, the two fighters talked, the girl leapt to her feet, and they dove into battle. Like the first time she'd seen the feed, Natasha found herself analyzing the teenager's fighting. She'd chosen a fluid style, with more acrobatics than hand-to-hand combat. The assassin's mouth twitched in approval as the girl used Thor's momentum to her advantage, twisting around him like a ribbon in the wind. After a few minutes of flurried activity, the action froze when the teenager suddenly paled and, with a glance, caused the grassy ground to disappear and swallow the Norse god. One brief back-and-forth conversation later and she had melted away without a trace. Closing the link and reopening the other page, Natasha held the tablet out to Tony.
"That's all there is, but we managed to use the facial recognition software you have to trace her whereabouts to this place." She squinted at a line of tiny turquoise letters running along the bottom of the screen. "Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. She stopped at a memorial for some state monument- the Old Man on the Mountain? Seventeen minutes ago." Tony seemed deep in thought.
"Franconia… " he muttered under his breath. Pursing his lips, he peered closer at the image. Natasha could almost see the gears whirring in his head as he considered the information. Finally, with an air of ease, the billionaire leaned back. "You know, I'm not so sure about this anymore. Are we sure we want to go find this girl?"
The other three Avengers snapped their heads to stare at him. "Are you serious?" Clint said, mouth wide open.
Tony shrugged. "Well, she's obviously involved with SHIELD, and I bet only Fury knows why. I'm just saying that we could quit while we're ahead. The girl already knocked Thunder Head's socks off and I don't think we need any more humiliation than that."
They watched Tony with blank faces. When he finished, they blinked and glanced at each other. In unison, the trio's gaze fell to the StarkPad. Silence spread heavily over the couch.
"So, everyone be ready to leave in half an hour?" Natasha checked.
"Sounds good."
"Agreed."
Tony sighed, his shoulders slumping slightly. A second later, however, he brightened, gears again beginning to spin. "Fine. But if we're going, I'm not waiting thirty minutes for you slowpokes. I'll meet you there." Thor glanced up, concern furrowing his brow.
"Friend Stark, would it not be safer for us all to approach the girl-warrior together? We have all seen that her skill is great."
The genius flipped his hand uncaringly. "Don't worry, Goldilocks, I'm a big boy. I'll just scout out the situation and when you all get there, we'll say hello like a good team."
Tony was halfway out the door by the time he finished, leaving his friends no time to come up with a way to stop him. Natasha eyed the empty doorway. Eventually, she turned away to prepare for departure herself, heading to the weapons locker to choose a gun or three. Still, a slight frown stuck to the agent's lips. The situation seemed off to the fire-haired woman. In the back of her mind was an irritating nagging sensation, like a missing word in a sentence. She was sure there was something she didn't know, something she should be seeing but wasn't.
She just couldn't figure out what.
AN: Hello. First, I want to apologize for the shortness of last chapter. It just worked that way, and I needed it in there. This one was longer, so I hope you feel better now. And the next one is super long, so I bet you'll enjoy that.
Now, I think I've finally figured out a direction for this. I had ideas before, but now they've kind of conglomerated. So yay.
And finally, I want to say sorry for the time it's taking between chapters. I keep telling myself I'll write, and then I just seem to run out of time. Curse Waverly, she's always busy when I need her for story writing.
Please leave a review if you want to help me get ideas and motivation to write (I sort of need it:P)
Have a great day!