A/N: Hi everyone, please don't hate me! This chapter was for some reason incredibly hard for me to write. Anyway, here it is. Sorry if there might be a few mistakes but I had surgery a few days ago and I'm still on pain medicine for it. On the plus side, I might be able to get another chapter done before I go back to work. This story will continue on before the events of Civil War, and will remain spoiler free of the movie for at least the next month or so. Once again, sorry it took so long, and hopefully I'll feel well enough to focus on writing right now. Also, a very special thank you to everyone who has reviewed my story. If it wasn't for your reviews, I would think this story is awful.

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Chapter Seven: So That's Where Waldo's Been

Cassandra was getting really tired of this cat and mouse thing. Being the cat was fun, but the mouse…There had to be a way to get rid of League. Someone had to have dirt on him, some weakness she could exploit. All she needed was to do a little more digging. He was from Eastern Europe, she knew that much, and if he was well known enough for the people in the chat forum to know of him, he might have a record somewhere. No one gets that good at what they do without leaving a few footprints.

With a sigh, Cassandra cut the engine and got out of the car, dragging with her whatever was necessary. It really was a nice car, and she felt bad about what she was about to do, but with League so close to her there wasn't much she could afford to leave a loose end. Dumping out a bottle of cheap vodka over the interior, she made sure to really let it soak in. She took out a box of matches while she waited for the alcohol to seep in and lit a couple, watching the flame burn down closer and closer to her fingertips. After she couldn't wait much longer, she struck a new match to life and threw it onto the driver's seat. The flames spread quickly and engulfed the interior in less than a minute.

Looking around, Cassandra picked a fairly decent spot. It looked like an abandoned lumber yard, and so long as a freak wind didn't catch it the flames wouldn't spread beyond the cracked pavement. Someone would eventually catch the smoke from out here, but by then the car would be torched. Her watch said it was a little after midnight. Not the ideal time for a hike through the woods, but she supposed it would be good cover. As luck would have it, she found a stream not too far in and was able to follow it towards civilization.

Rambling through the town, Cassandra found a bus station a few blocks in. The buses were done for the night, but thankfully the center was kept unlocked. A map of the state was hanging on the far wall and she moved closer to take a look. With a sigh of relief she realized she was about forty miles away from the cheap motel. It wasn't very far, but she didn't think anyone would look for her so close, and certainly not in a bus terminal. It didn't fit her pattern at all. Curling up on a bench with her stuff beneath her, she pulled a jacket over herself and tried to get a few hours of sleep.

The sound of footsteps on tile woke her before the sun had risen. Cassandra sat up instantly alert and saw a middle aged woman in a bright vest walking towards her. She had bags under her eyes and black hair that was just turning grey.

"Sorry to wake you, honey, I was just getting my keys for the day," the woman said as she unlocked a door by the side entrance and walked through. Cassandra heard a drawer slide open and shut before the woman came back and relocked the door. "Did you sleep here all night? Those benches aren't very comfortable."

"I came back from visiting my parents early," Cassandra lied. "My boyfriend didn't come to pick me up."

"Hope you mean ex boyfriend now," the woman replied.

"Apparently he was too busy with another woman, so I'd say yes," Cassandra replied.

It was better to gain sympathy from strangers, it made them less suspicious. When people are too busy feeling sorry for you, they tended to forget important details like your appearance or where you were going. She could have made the woman more sympathetic by using her powers, but the thought still made her nauseous inside after the bar incident.

The bus driver clicked her tongue and shook her head in sympathy while clipping on a nametag. Helen. "Honey, I'll take you wherever you wanna go, you've been through enough. "

Cassandra paused for a moment before she answered. "I'd like to go to Albany, however far you can take me."

"Is that where you're parents live," Helen asked.

Cassandra flinched a bit at the statement reflexively. "No, no, it's where my sister lives. I'd rather go stay with her for a bit." She let her voice trail off like she was about to cry and looked down.

Helen all but ushered her onto the bus and Cassandra settled into the seat behind her. The driver prattled on about this and that, keeping up a steady stream of one sided conversation: they were redoing the construction on the interstate again, baseball season was starting up, and other things topics of disinterest. At one point they passed a field of wind turbines and Cassandra nodded her head along absently to Helen's voice. She took Cassandra's nod as a cue to be quiet, and the silence stretched over them as more passengers climbed aboard. She shut her eyes for most of the drive and tried in vain to go back to sleep. It seemed like only minutes had passed before Helen announced they were at her stop.

Cassandra stood up and dug some cash out of her pocket to pay, but Helen put a hand up to stop her. "Keep it," she said. "Go out to breakfast with your sister." With a shrug and a smile, Cassandra stepped off the bus and looked around. The city was starting to get busy, which was both a good and bad thing. She wouldn't stand out as much in a crowd, but there were also more eyes. Her stomach started to growl and she decided her first move would be the McDonald's across the street.

Sitting off in a corner with her luggage, Cassandra thought through her next steps as she ate. No one appeared to take much interest in her, so she allowed herself to settle back into the seat and close her eyes, envisioning different routes to take. She didn't notice any immediate danger in staying in Albany, so for the present it would work. Sometimes being constantly on the move was riskier than staying put.

If she was going to stay in town, Cassandra would need two things: a place to stay, and transportation that wasn't public. The last thing she wanted was to get busted off of video surveillance from a city bus. Pulling out the laptop, she looked up cheap hotels in the area and then used her powers to narrow it down. Eventually she found a suitable hotel with few cameras and far enough out from the center of the city that she could still make a clean getaway.

With that out of the way, Cassandra could work on a clean set of wheels. Ideally, she would take the car and be out of the area before the police started searching for it. However, there were plenty of morally ambiguous tips and tricks up her sleeve. Exploring the area with Google maps a little more, Cassandra went outside and hailed down a taxi.

"I need to get across town, to the River Inn," Cassandra said as she scrambled into the backseat. "But do me a favor, I'm hoping to avoid any traffic past Market Street, can you cut down Poplar and go through the subdivisions?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart, but it's gonna cost more," the scraggly looking driver said. Cassandra threw a wad of cash at him and he went silent, pulling out onto the road.

Cassandra looked out the window the entire ride, seemingly enjoying the view. What she was really on the lookout for was cars. Every region had a specific make and model that was more prominent. Here it looked like a Toyota Corolla. Eyeing a target, she made a mental note of the location and sat back in her seat.

The first thing she did when she got to the hotel was crash. Cassandra felt so exhausted and spent that the only thing she cared about was sleep; she didn't even bother to change out of her clothes. The second her head hit the pillow, it was lights out. In fact, it was lights out when she woke up too. The sun was starting to set outside and very little light was showing through the cheap curtains.

Yawning, Cassandra got up to take a shower and change into some fresh clothes. She set off down the street towards a gas station, picking up a few slices of pizza, a bottle of Coke, and a few of those mini shots filled with whiskey. The pizza was mediocre, even for gas station pizza, but she figured she had probably made worse life choices before as she shrugged and took a bite.

Unfortunately, the best method of transportation at the moment was once again the city bus. She sighed as she sat down at the bus stop and poured the whiskey in her Coke. It probably wasn't smart in light of last night's events, but Cassandra didn't really care. The bus pulled up, and she stayed on until the courthouse came into view.

Walking along the street like she belonged there, Cassandra paused in front of her target: a Toyota Corolla that was racking up parking tickets across the dash. Clearly, somebody didn't make their bail money. Double checking the area, she quickly pried the door open and got inside while thinking she was probably doing this person a favor. It already looked like someone had stolen and ransacked it inside. There were holes in the upholstery and scattered papers, receipts, and debris across the floorboards. How inconsiderate.

At least the engine started up quickly, for which she was thankful. Her next step would be to go back down Poplar street, to find her earlier target. There was a church down the street and Cassandra pulled into the far corner of the lot. Taking her screwdriver out, she removed the license plate off the back and stuffed it inside her jacket where no one could see it.

Trying to consciously put out vibes that said 'don't look at me, I'm not committing a crime', Cassandra set off down the street towards her end goal. Earlier she had seen a prime target: a Corolla sat at the top of an otherwise empty driveway. The grass was a lot longer there than the neighbor's, and a few packages were stacked by the door. It looked like whoever lived at the house was out of town. Of course, the neighbor's would notice if the car went missing, but she had no intention of stealing it.

Working as fast as she could, Cassandra swapped out the plates and returned back to the stolen Corolla, putting on the new plate. It would hopefully be a while before anyone noticed the switch up, and it would buy her some time if the police started checking plates for the stolen car. Feeling oddly proud of herself, Cassandra returned to the motel.

It seemed like there were no new leads about League, which frustrated the hell out of her. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself of her original goal; finding Augustus Leitner. At the time, she had just been searching for a safe place to run to in her liquor filled state, but thinking back on last night while she was running, Cassandra remembered a strange blue glow around the corners of her vision, the telltale signs of magic. She had a feeling she was compelled to come to Albany for something more.

This time she tried searching for anything to do with HYDRA near Albany, scouring the darknet for clues. Combing through some more leads, Cassandra eventually found something of interest. There was a newspaper article detailing a conglomerate of companies working on renewable energy in the area. At first glance it looked like a pet project or tax write-off for big corporations, but one of the smaller companies listed was actually a dummy company for HYDRA. Cassandra recognized the name from earlier searches.

Reading the first couple of paragraphs, it looked like they had installed wind turbines across the county, similar to the ones Helen had pointed out on the bus. She kept reading, but it appeared the article was just listing the science behind it. It didn't really make sense though. Why would HYDRA have invested in wind turbines? At the end of the article was a group of pictures. None of them caught Cassandra's eye until the last one. It was a landscape shot, detailing the newly constructed field of turbines with a big shiny fence and no trespassing signs.

That's what HYDRA was after, it had to be. For a few million dollars they get a government sanctioned private playground. There had to be something out in that field worth keeping hidden, and she had a feeling what it was. Underground bunkers were HYDRA's bread and butter like any evil secret organization. The only problem was figuring out how to access it, and if it was still active.

A ten minute search had pulled up the blueprints on the project, and two plots of land in particular where the dummy corporation had donated funds. Cassandra grimaced; it looked like over a hundred and fifty acres of land. It was going to be a little more difficult than she thought. Her powers wouldn't help much here either. In order to find something using her precognition, she had to first envision every possible outcome; trying to sort through every outcome in a playing field this large, where the bunker would be well hidden, would take time she didn't have.

Looks like it'll be the old fashioned way, Cassandra thought to herself. Needles and haystacks weren't really her thing. She was more of a fish in a barrel sort of girl. Still, she knew when it was time to suck it up and put on her boots. She packed a small bag with a water bottle, a flashlight, a flask, and a printed out map before heading out to the Corolla. She had already accessorized earlier with her guns and knives. Was any outfit ever complete without a weapon shoved down the side of her boot?

She thought about if it was better to wait for the next morning, but decided against it; if there was a bunker, and it was still in use, they would see her more easily in the daylight. Besides, any secret base would have been made out of the public eye so no one would see people coming and going. If she did get caught, she could always pretend she was an intern for the city's agriculture department checking on the turbines and nighttime wildlife in the area.

She started at the smaller plot of land, hoping that she wouldn't have to go to the bigger site at all. It was off the main road quite a way, which held some promise, but the interstate was still partially in view. Looking around, it seemed like nothing but corn fields and an edge of the interstate nearby. Cassandra decided she didn't need to check any further than that; it was too easy for someone driving by to see people moving in and out of the area, and there was no place to hide vehicles.

Sighing, Cassandra drove towards the larger site and circled it a few times with her car to get a feel of the land. At least this site had a better fit. There were a few barns in the area that looked abandoned, which would afford her a decent place to hide her car once she checked them out. No major roadways were nearby, and in fact it looked like this area was partnered with a wildlife shelter area that bordered it. All in all, it meant very few unwanted visitors.

Except for Cassandra, that is. She pulled up to a barn and left the car in park while she went inside to check it out. The inside was completely empty, but it looked like it was in good condition. In other words, it didn't look like a building that had been tossed aside for twenty years. Mentally putting up a Proceed With Caution sign, she holstered the pistol in her boot and went on her way.

There was really nothing quite like tripping in a field in pitch black darkness to really get your Friday night kicked off just right. She figured that she could work her way in a patchwork pattern, just like she did with minesweeper. That way, Cassandra could partially use her precognition and speed things up just a tad.

After about an hour and a half, Cassandra decided to take a small break. At the very least, she couldn't see her starting point and that was something to feel glad about. Living in New York meant she was fairly used to walking a lot of places, but the ground was rough. The grass grew in long, uneven clumps that were easy to trip you up in the darkness if you weren't paying attention. She sat down on the driest area she could and took a long swig out of her flask.

It had been particularly cloudy that night, but just then the moon peeked through the cover and reflected off the metal flask. She twisted it around this way and that, idly watching the reflected light bounce around. It hit something reflective on the base of a wind turbine. It looked like one of those reflective plastic pieces on the backs of bikes so drivers could see them on the side of the road. Getting closer, she realized it was some sort of sticker. Oddly enough though, she didn't remember seeing it on the other turbines she had passed.

What would be the purpose of a plain reflective sticker? Testing a sudden theory, Cassandra put her back to it and swung her flashlight around. The beam passed several turbines before reflecting off another sticker in the distance. She repeated this process a few more times. As she reached the fourth sticker, she spun around and couldn't find another. Either the next sticker had peeled off, or there was no more trail.

If I were a secret entrance, where would I be, Cassandra thought to herself. The ground around the area was all relatively even, and it was hard to find any difference in the dark. Well, fuck it. Her cover was already blown if anyone was nearby; she decided to amble around, stomping through the grass to try to find any clues. They would have set up security measures by any entrance, so either she was about to get an impromptu party complete with fireworks, or radio silence.

She was crossing over the same spot for the third time when she felt the ground give. Not enough to cause alarm, but it did feel substantially less solid than the area around it. Crouching, she moved around the area, trying to get a feel for how wide it was. At about four feet in diameter, Cassandra doubted this was the main entrance. This felt more like an emergency exit/secret late night beer run entrance.

It took her a minute but Cassandra eventually found a hidden latch. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the hatch open and swung her legs in while trying to judge the distance down. Her landing was less graceful than she hoped, but at least she was on her feet. The room was no more than six feet in diameter with probably an eight foot ceiling. Hardly a grand HYDRA entrance. Definitely the secret beer run entrance.

Closing her eyes, Cassandra took a moment to listen for any movement and then focusing on looking into the future. The area appeared to be empty for the time being, and she settled back into a more cautious state, pulling her knife out of its sheath and moving towards the inner door.

Cassandra carefully turned the door handle and let it slide inward before tapping her knife handle against it. "Knock knock. Anyone home? I'm here to talk to you about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Still smirking at her own joke, she stepped into the long hallway and looked at both sides. Plain doors stretched up and down the length at a regular span, which provided no help in picking a direction. She decided on the left side and inspected the nearest door.

What do evil scientists keep in their secret lairs anyway? Cassandra peeked through a crack and decided the room seemed safe enough. Pushing the door open all the way, she shined her flashlight around for a better view. Some lounge chairs, a pool table…oh and look, a bar. Figures. She closed the door and kept going. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for. Surely important rooms had important looking doors?

The hallway seemed to stretch on, looping around and veering off into smaller hallways. It reminded her of an ant hill, which made Cassandra think of those YouTube videos where they pour liquid metal into them. It made a cool sculpture, but had to kill everything inside. If only there was a way to heat up that much metal out here.

She was lost in thought and had to back up a few spaces after passing a door that looked sturdier than the rest and was made entirely of metal. The important looking door. Slowly, she pushed open the door while keeping one hand on her gun. Rows of desks filled up the entire room, like an office cubicle in Hell. The desks were cleared of paperwork on top, but one of drawers left ajar suggested they were still filled with files.

This was both the easiest and most boring part of the job, and Cassandra almost wished there were still people running around this place that she could interrogate instead. Resigning herself to spending the next several hours covered in dusty paper cuts, she grabbed a few files out of the first desk and skimmed through, noticing a pattern. It seemed like they had categorized the files, which was in her favor.

Skipping through several desks, Cassandra located the employee files with ease. As much fun as sitting in an office cubicle in silence for several hours would be, she grabbed an empty suitcase tossed to the side and threw the entire contents of the desk drawers inside. Skimming the other desks to see if there was anything else important, she made her exit.

Cassandra toyed with the idea of blowing up the base before deciding against it. It might have tipped off someone she was looking for. Besides, it would be much more therapeutic to return after this mess was all over with a bag of marshmallows and really live it up.