Loki had only been gone a week and Raven felt bored, her apartment empty and she found herself knocking on Maes door. When the girl opened the door she was slightly shocked, "Raven? What's up?"
"I was just wondering if you wanted to come over and have a drink or something." She felt slightly awkward.
"Well this is new." The younger girl said closing her door and following Raven back to her apartment. When Mae walked in and looked around, "No Loki? He was here for like two months straight."
"Had to go for work." Raven said pulling out a beer.
Mae couldn't help but smile, "So you were lonely then?"
"Shut up." Raven smirked at her, "You're the only person I know other than Scott that I can tolerate okay?"
"Tolerate? I feel like with you that's a major compliment." Mae took the bottle from her as Raven sat down on the couch with her, "So what is the real deal with him anyway? What's with the name Loki? And him disappearing all the time? Is he married and you two are a secret or what? Because that doesn't seem like your style."
"It's a long story that I doubt you would believe."
"Is it more or less believable that what you and Scott refuse to tell me that you do for a living?"
"Less." Raven sighed.
"Wow. That's impressive." Mae squinted at her, "So tell me what you and Scott do then and see if I believe it."
"I don't want to destroy your peaceful world of corporate finances."
"Anything but peaceful, and try me." She smirked.
"Just don't look at me any different." Raven pulled her legs up to her chest, resting her beer on her knee.
Mae put out a pinky, "Promise."
She looked at the girl in confusion, "What do I do with that?"
"God where were you raised? A convent?" Mae asked taking Ravens hand and intertwining their pinkies, "It's a pinky promise, if one of us breaks it the other breaks their pinky."
Raven raised an eyebrow at the girl and Mae sighed, "I regret using the pinky promise method now."
"Don't worry, I won't break it in a permanent way." She smiled before taking a deep breath and telling Mae everything about S.H.I.E.L.D. and her freelance work with Scott. When she was done Maes face was blank.
"Well that is pretty unbelievable, but if it weren't for the shots you have to take and people like Iron Man and that green guy I don't know that I would believe it. That and the fact that you leave at random times then hole up for a month." Mae nodded.
"So you gunna move out now? Turn me into the police?" Raven stretched her back.
"No." Mae shook her head, "Corporations do no worse than what you've done in order to protect themselves and their assets. So in a way I do what you do, just more indirectly. What you do must pay pretty well."
"Very well." Raven sat her empty bottle on the coffee table.
"I could always use extra money. If you need a hacker let me know. Might as well do work with people I like."
She looked at the girl surprised, "What?"
"That's what I do in the world of corporate finance." Mae smirked, "That's why I thought you were FBI or something. Didn't know about S.H.I.E.L.D. though."
"If you can hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell me anything about the Tesseract or a Captain Steve Rodgers, then you're gold in my book." Raven looked over at her.
"Give me a month." Mae shrugged, "That's how long the hardest encryptions will take."
"If you need any help let Scott know." Raven nodded in approval.
She walked through New York, Mae had told her that Rogers was going between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Raven scanned the crowds of people looking for him, his picture had been in his file and she caught a glimpse of someone, blue baseball cap, brown jacket, large build, and a perfectly chiseled jaw, heading into a library. She headed for the steps of the building and checked to make sure no one was following the man other than her before entering.
Moving her way through the stacks she spotted him in the archive section. He was sitting on the floor with newspapers all around him, his cap now removed and she saw that it was in fact Steve Rogers. She made her way to the down the aisle and pulled down a post-World War II stack of magazines and began flipping through the pages. She pretended to not find what she was looking for and turned to Rogers and whispered, "Hey is it okay if I go through some of these? I'm trying to find something."
"Yeah, what is it you're looking for?" He whispered back as she knelt down scanning through the pages. Rogers looked her up and down, loose jeans, hair in a messy bun, oversized jacket, she looked as if she was exhausted.
"I'm doing my graduate thesis on the influences of World War II propaganda on Post-War America. I heard about a man who was used heavily in recruitment ads and he's impossible to find information on. It was like Mr. America or something like that." She didn't look at him, only continuing to look through the papers.
"Captain." He looked up at her.
She looked up at him, "What?"
"Captain America." Rogers gave her a sad smile.
"Yeah, I think you're right. Is there anything about him here?" She faked a very sincere smile.
"No, I'm afraid not." He looked down at the papers.
"Strange." She sat back on her heels and looked him dead in the eyes, "You would think that someone who had that much influence would have been written about after the war but he just disappeared, there's no mention of him after 1945. Nowadays they would have done a 'Where are they now' type of piece on him but back then it's like they just threw him to the side. Like his only purpose was for good publicity and once they didn't need it anymore they threw him away."
"Maybe something happened to him? Maybe they couldn't find him after the war?" Rogers looked away from her, "Maybe they didn't want to upset the public?"
"Maybe but it could have brought the people together even more." She sighed, "To have been used like that then thrown away. It's horrible."
"Yeah." He looked around at all the papers.
Raven smiled at him again and stood, "Well thanks, anyways, sorry for bothering you."
"Not a problem, miss." He watched her as she walked away.
She stopped outside of the library and looked back, it was Captain Steve Rogers she had just spoken to, and he remembered what happened to him. She would have to find a new way to approach him next time to be able to talk to him about what they had done to him.
"Hey Raven, I've got something." Mae called from the living room.
Raven came out of the bed room tying her hair up, "What is it?"
"Thanks to Scott upping the servers I was able to crack where the Tesseract is." Mae smiled at her.
"Really?" Raven sat next to her on the couch, "Where?"
"It's known as Project Pegasus, Joint Dark Energy Mission, Western Division, in a small part of the Mojave Desert in Arizona.
"Nice job. If you ever want to do something other than Corporate Finace Espionage, let me know." Raven said standing up and heading to her book case. Mae watched as she pulled out a book and opened it, taking an envelope from the inside of it. She came back over handing it to the girl, "For your time."
Mae opened up the envelope seeing seven thousand dollars, "Holy crap! Where did you get this kind of cash?"
"From my work." She smirked.
"You and Scott make money like this all the time?" Mae looked at her, "Count me in."
"You sure about that?" Raven leaned back on the couch.
"My dad has a lot of medical bills. This could help him get rid of those and get really good treatment for his cancer." Mae looked back down at the money.
Raven nodded, "Then you're in."
Mae watched as she went and grabbed her jacket and keys, "You help Scott with recruiting, I'm going to head to the lab to the desert."
She tried not to be nervous this close to S.H.I.E.L.D. but it didn't work. Anyone in that building could recognize her, could potentially find a way for them to take her back, but she didn't have a choice. Watching as alarms began going off in the facility she knew this was her chance to get in, people would be hectic, trying to get out, not worrying about others getting in. Raven made her move, sliding under the fence, blending in with the scared families. She knocked out a doctor and stole his lab coat, helping to blend in more.
Turning a corner in the car lot she saw them loading up crates labeled Phase 2 and she uncovered her watch, snapping a picture of it. She went to move past them but the ground began to shake, maybe coming in here with the alarms going off wasn't that good of an idea. Before continuing on she noticed a row of guns on the wall, she knew this place was going down and she would rather waste their bullets than hers. Grabbing an assault rifle she slung it over her shoulder and stayed out of sight, using boxes and supports as her cover as she moved.
She couldn't make it into the building without being seen by a woman who was overseeing the transport of the crates, she didn't recognize her, but she could tell she was higher up so the woman may know who she was. Raven was about to make her move when a group of people came out of the door she was trying to get into, she knew the voice of the man who spoke, Hawkeye, he was on a team like hers, they had worked together a few times. And then she saw him, gold, green, and black clothes, his hair had grown to his shoulder, Loki was back on Earth.
Waiting for her moment she was caught off guard by the woman getting a call from someone saying that Hawkeye had turned and the woman rolled away firing rounds at them. Raven came up behind the woman and hit her on the head with the butt of the rifle.
Loki looked up and saw this, smiling at seeing Raven again. She smirked and jumped in the back of the truck with him, "I see you've made new friends."
"I always did have a magnetic personality." Loki laughed back as the car began to pull away.
The woman shot after them and Raven cursed, "I should have shot her."
"Why didn't you?" Loki looked to where they were headed.
"Didn't want to waste the bullets not knowing what was ahead." Raven also peaked over the top of the truck. They were being followed and before she shot her gun Loki fired from his spear and Raven looked at him, "Looks like you don't need me anymore."
"Perhaps not for combat." He grinned, "Plus we still do not know what is ahead and may need your bullets."
The tunnel began to collapse and she planted her feet on the truck bed, not knowing what awaited them on the outside of it, which happened to be a helicopter. She aimed her rifle, hitting the fuel tank of the aircraft and it spun out of control, crashing to the ground. Raven looked to him, "You let me do that."
"I wanted you to be able to have a little fun." He smiled sitting back down on the bed. She sat next to him.
"I think the fun's just started." She set the gun down in front of her, pulling out her phone and dialing, "Scott, get Mae and send the word out, it's time."
"Scott and Mae?" He looked at her.
"You've been gone a few months, we got some work done." She put the phone back in her pocket.
"Is that how you knew to be there?" Loki looked at her.
"No, I knew that's where the Tesseract was, but had no idea that you would be here too. It was just good timing."
"Very good." He moved to kiss her but she stopped him.
"They could be captured, get interrogated, it's best if we keep things like that behind closed doors." She leaned back, "The less they know about us, the better."
"Yes. I suppose that is true." He leaned back as well. He had missed her more than he had missed anyone in his life. It seemed as if she hadn't missed him at all. This thought left him though as he looked at her outfit and saw that instead of the pale blue and black she had worn before the colors were now black and green, the same as his.
"Things haven't been as interesting without you around." She said her eyes closed as the truck moved through the desert.
