I fixed up chapter 6, so take a look, I think a few points have been improved upon. So here's chapter 7. Hope you all enjoy it
If it's unclear about 4 days have passed since Ch 6.
"Maybe something affected them? A threat?" Steve suggests cocking his head to the side as if a new perspective will help them solve this.
"It's not entirely impossible." Banner replies a frown creasing his forehead, he hasn't seen anything like this in his life, and he's silently half wishing he could be taking brainwave readings on these two right now.
"There's been zero air activity, no movement on any of the high rises in the vicinity to strike up alarm, no ground disturbances..." Tony shoots off looking at his handheld; he glances back up at Cadence and Clint.
"We're in agreement that we're not going to touch them?" he asks again, Bruce sighs.
"Yes, in Clint's case he may be jolted into awareness and strike out. And in Cadence's case the drastic shift from theta waves to beta waves may...it may cause her a great deal of pain." He says still uncertain of what on earth is going on with those two.
"Romanov, I need you on the roof. Something's up with Barton." Tony says into his handheld, Steve and Banner hear her sharp displeased voice from the other line.
"Stark, what the hell could possibly be up with Barton?"
"Just get up here, tout suit, if you don't mind." He disconnects before she can say anything else.
"What were they doing up here to begin with?" Tony asks, glancing sidelong at the pair. Cadence and Clint are sitting on the ground completely and impenetrably ensconced in the dancing flames of a small fire in one of the unnecessarily installed fire pits he has. Clint hugging his knees, eyes focused into the flames, pupils constricted. Cadence is cross legged, pupils' large, eyes following the flickering of the fire. They're both stalk still, and have been in the same position since Tony walked up here twenty minutes ago.
"You know that Fury allowed her knowledge of her whereabouts yesterday. She and I were going to run through some meditation techniques, I wanted to test a couple theories I have about how she functions with an extra wavelength. Barton brought her up while I finished setting up the prep work to synthesize the drug that's in her system. Wouldn't have been more than forty minutes, but Tony called me up after about half an hour, and Barton had said something vague about targets."
"Half an hour and now the archer and the telekinetic are petrified." Tony says a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"This isn't normal." Steve says, watching Cadence warily.
"If you hadn't noticed, Cap, we're not exactly the picture of normalcy." Natasha says as she comes through the door. Tony's face brightens a bit with relief.
"Took you long enough." He jabs, and her resulting scowl shuts him up. Her eyes fall to Clint and Cadence. A smirk plays over her face.
"Something's up with Barton alright." She says, a laugh escaping her.
"You've seen this before?" Steve asks and she nods. She's seen it alright, sees it in his posture. He's putting everything he has into his focus. Notes something similar in Cadence's posture.
"They're competing." She says.
"They're competing? How are they competing, they're just looking at fire." Steve interjects, and Natasha raises a brow at the Captain.
"First of all, Clint is looking at a rock near the wood, and Cadence is looking at the flames." She starts, gracefully making her way over to her partner, she's wearing runner's shorts and a blue tank top, she's also bear foot.
"Second, it's a competition to see who has the best focus." She explains bringing her mouth to Clint's ear.
"Prosnisʹ, yastreb." She whispers, Wake up, Hawk. Banner expects him to be jolted back to reality but he's proven wrong when the archer simply closes his eyes and a lazy smile stretches across his face.
"YA ne spala, vdova."He replies, I wasn't sleeping, Widow. She smiles.
"You broke my concentration." He says, not accusingly just curiously. She nods.
"They didn't know what to do when they found you and Cadence up here, being competitive." She gives him a look that implies he's competitive quite often.
"She's the one that brought it up." He defends finally moving. The moment he does, the fire goes out and light returns to Cadence's eyes. She turns, grinning.
"I won." She says with an air of triumph, looking smug.
"If I hadn't been interrupted I would be the victor right now." He counters, and she notices the others are here with them.
"You didn't notice us at all, did you?" Banner asks, and she shakes her head.
"Not at all." She admits freely.
"I've been trained to block out all interfering outside forces." Clint comments, rising from his spot and standing next to Natasha he smiles when he notices her clothes, "You were dancing?" He murmurs, and she nods tightly.
"We thought something had gotten you." Steve says revealing his unclear concern over the matter.
"You thought something had gotten to them, but there wasn't anything to support that." Tony says argumentatively.
"Well none of us knew how to snap them out of it." Steve counters, frowning.
"Snapping them out wouldn't have been good." Banner says, coming over to Cadence and giving her a hand up.
"No, that wouldn't have been good." Natasha agrees, putting a hand on Clint's arm. Both of them become a little forlorn as a memory navigates through their thoughts. Almost as quickly they brighten again and Natasha drops her hand. Clint nods at her, and the pair is suddenly deep in a silent conversation. Steve takes his leave silently—feeling like an intruder to the assassin's moment—albeit a little begrudgingly. Tony shrugs turning to Bruce.
"How high do you want 'em to reach?" He asks, knowing the other scientist will understand what he's talking about.
"Fifty oscillations; no more than that." He says, Cadence raises a brow in inquiry, Tony catches her expression.
"I'm working on a project that will allow us to take readings of your brainwaves without putting all those wires on you."
"That will be a relief." She says and he looks proud.
"I came up with the idea myself." He says as he makes his way to the door. Banner snorts at Tony's cocky expression.
"Forgive me if I don't believe you." Cadence calls after him.
"You are so not forgiven, Princess." It's the last thing they hear from him. She shakes her head with a chuckle. It starts to rain.
"Do you want to go inside?" Bruce asks when she doesn't react right away. She's tilted her head back and closes her eyes taking a deep breath.
"No, if that's alright with you." She says, opening her eyes to look at him. His shirt is getting speckled with raindrops. She looks over at Natasha and Clint, as the rain becomes stronger their silent conversation ends and Natasha blinks looking up. Clint smiles and the two retreat to the veranda and begin a quiet conversation.
"I don't mind. Barton and Natasha are up—"
"Oh, stay! We can go inside in a bit, take a break, Banner. You're in no rush." He doesn't know what makes him stay, it might be the light in her eyes, the light that wasn't present the first few days she was here, or it might be that he does need a bit of a break.
"I keep telling you, I'm interested in figuring this out too." He says shaking his head, he shrugs, and copies her earlier movement of tilting her head back.
"Isn't it nice?" She says, raising her voice over the rainfall, they're both drenched, and she hears Clint laughing from the veranda, she looks over and sees that he's chuckling. Natasha is trying to hide her mirth, but hers is directed at Bruce. A clap of thunder has them all jumping, and the sky darkens considerably. Cadence dances over to the veranda and sits next to the wall watching the sky; Bruce follows suit, he moves to sit down when a heat comes over him like a warm wind, he smirks when a decent sized ball of water hovers in front of him before disappearing into the rain.
"That never fails to surprise me." He says taking a seat next to her; they're both dry. A particularly loud clap of thunder has her jerking with a start and leaning into Bruce ever so slightly. Having had so many years of practice the sudden noises don't startle him as much. He looks over at the assassins; Natasha's gotten up to stand at the edge of the veranda, she's looking up at the sky with a thoughtful frown on her face.
"What's on your mind, Tasha?" He hears Clint ask as he stands next to her. He sees her shrug.
"There's something familiar about those clouds." She says leaning against one of the pillars. A bright flash of lightening has Cadence's eye widening with childish awe. Bruce appreciates seeing her so enamoured, sort of takes a piece of her enjoyment. There's a rumble of thunder so strong is rattles the building.
"Whoa!" Cadence exclaims, and she hears Natasha swear.
"What is it?" Bruce calls over. Natasha turns to him.
"Thor." She says, and before Cadence can ask any questions there's an eardrum shattering boom that has them all covering their ears. Cadence has her eyes on the clouds as they billow and seem to form a gaping hole, her jaw drops. There's a flash and an object starts to fall from the sky.
"What the hell is—" She doesn't get to finish before she's screaming.
Hey eyes stop working, its pure white, her ears ring, her head burns and screams at her like an axe has been buried in her skull. They're thrown back against the wall, and she finds herself curling into the closest thing to her. Natasha and Clint brace had braced themselves on the pillars, and managed to stay standing. Natasha looks to Banner and Cadence, her stomach does a dip. Banner's eyes are screwed shut and he's completely rigid. Cadence is screaming—in pain—and curled into him subconsciously. Her hand finds Clint's arm.
"Nat?—Oh shit." He says following her gaze.
Everything is fine. There's no danger. You're fine. It's safe here. It's just Thor. You can't Hulk out here. Breathe Banner. The Other Guy isn't needed here, there's too many people—Cadence. Screaming. She's on me. That fact has him frozen, slows his heart and stops his shock response. She's screaming, clutching at her head, with a force that looks like she could be ripping her hair out. She's leaning into his chest; he feels her screams vibrating through him.
"Cadence!" He exclaims, bringing a hand to the back of her head. Clint falls into a kneel next to them.
"What's wrong with her?" He asks, concern bleeding from him like a sliced artery. Bruce looks at him with an expression of horror and uncertainty. Natasha rushes out onto the roof to where Thor landed.
"Ah, the beautiful Widow, I am glad to see you again!" He greets with a bow. She shoots a look behind her, relaxing ever so slightly now that she's certain Bruce is alright.
"Likewise, Thor." She says managing a tight smile. Thor's noticed the screaming.
"What is the matter with the youngling?" He says making moves toward the trio on the veranda. If anything Cadence screams louder.
"Cadence, Cadence, what's wrong, what hurts?" Banner asks, not bothering to pry her off of him. He moves his hand on her hair to her back and gapes at the purple bruises forming near her temples. Clint hisses when he sees them too.
"My head, my head!" She manages, tears, mixed with blood streak Bruce's shirt. She screams louder and Clint turns around suddenly.
"Move back! Move away!" He shouts at Thor. The Asgardian pauses in his step and Natasha ushers him back. Her screams diminish into wails and her grip transfers to Bruce's arm, fisting into his shirt.
"Am I causing harm to her?" Thor asks, concernedly, watching the display, makes his chest ache for the girl.
"I don't know. Stay right here." She's nearly a blur and comes to a stop at the edge of the veranda.
"What's doing this?" She asks sharply. Hating the sounds of Cadence's tormented screams.
"So strong! Loud!" Cadence chokes out, curling into Banner even more.
"His brain waves!" He exclaims, subconsciously rubbing uselessly soothing circles on Cadence's back. "It must be his brain waves." Natasha turns away and pulls out her palm tablet.
"Tony! Get up to the roof now! And bring a dose of tranquilizers!" She barks, walking back toward Thor who looks increasingly distraught.
"Is it I who torments the girl so?" He asks, she makes a face.
"What's going on up there?" Tony's response comes in, he's moving, she can hear the noise in the background.
"Just get up here or our guest might end up brain dead!" She replies she looks at Thor.
"It's not your fault, but her abilities—you could be causing her pain, based on her abilities." She explains as easily as she can. Thor frowns, but doesn't say anything.
"It has to do with proximity." He says, piecing together the evidence of the last few minutes. Natasha nods. Tony rushes onto the roof and freezes as he takes in Cadence's appearance.
"What happened?" He asks, Natasha shoots a look at Thor that tells him not to move. She rushes over the Tony.
"Thor's here. Could be that his Asgardian brain waves are too much for Cadence. Where's the tranquilizer?" She demands half grimacing at how dumb 'Asgardian brainwaves' sound, he holds out a syringe.
"You're not going to tranq Thor are you?" He asks, and she shakes her head, dropping to her knees next to a still screaming Cadence.
"This is going to stop the pain, Cadence." She says loudly, and rather ruthlessly jabs the syringe into Cadence's neck. Her body jolts, and four people mentally cross their fingers that she doesn't reject it. Her screams stop, devolving into whimpers. Her body sags, and Clint catches her and lays her on her back on the concrete. They're all silent, Tony and Banner's faces pale, Clint's an open book of shock, Natasha's schooled but concerned. Cadence's eyes are bloody, the blood vesicles having hemorrhaged, red tracks down her cheeks and covers her lips from where she'd also bled from her nose.
"God." Tony says, "She's not dead is she?"
Reviews are always appreciated, they help me improve continuous thanks to all those who have alerted this.
Chapter 8 coming soon.
