Back at the jet
When Michael got back I was already fiddling with some of the things I'd nabbed, starting with the with the things from the memory block. There was a lot of information and by that I meant a lot of information in regards to pretty much all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted list, hydra, whiplash 2.0 (ye, lame name, straight to the point though) and numerous other terrorists and threats. I grinned, sending a copy of all the information to my good friends back home at S.H.I.E.L.D. signing it as the anonymous tip - using the special signature things I put at the end of everything - but this time adding my real name so they knew it was me, hopefully this would convince the Avengers I wasn't as evil as they believed. I didn't bother trying to mask my location, not because they would be able to trace it - because they wouldn't succeed if I truly wanted to stay hidden - but purely because we weren't going to be here for much longer. As soon as Michael got his breath back it would be off and out back to the military base near New York, off to finish this little adventure.
But in all seriousness I did hope this convinced them I wasn't as evil as they thought. I mean how could their opinion of me change so dramatically due to one little thing? How could one possibly come to such a conclusion after witnessing one said of a tiny thing! You couldn't! What they witnessed was not the crime it was the evidence, in some sort of symbolic way at least. It couldn't have made them just hate me out of the blue, all it could do was confirm their doubt... Did that mean they'd already had doubts about me? How could the- No, I couldn't do this now. Everything was leading back to them! My emotions were slipping, it was because I was so confused, everything had come at me all at once, I wasn't used to so much personal drama, things that made me question myself, and I knew I would have to get my thoughts straight before I could become unbiased again. I saw Michael arrive and was snapped out of my thoughts. Thankfully. They were getting deep.
"You had me worried there for a bit." I said quietly, not looking away from the computer screen, information scrolling past me. "For a minute I thought you were going to leave me to get out on my own." I added quickly, to brush off the feels that may have been conveyed. Unfortunately, Michael saw passed it.
"Is that a little sentiment I'm seeing there?" He said jokingly, I just glared at him, he knew where I stood on feelings, but I couldn't help but notice I was getting a little soft, I guessed that was what happened when you were around the Avengers, you became a do-gooder yourself. Don't get me wrong, I had nothing wrong with fighting the good fight except I did it for different reasons than them, they did it out of kindness, redemption, because they could help others. They did it for reasons that superheroes did it. Not me, I was no superhero. I did it because it meant I could kill and not get in trouble for it, I did it because it meant that I could be above justice, could do what villains did and it would be seemed as honourable, I did it because I didn't think I'd ever be able to go into a battle with the Avengers knowing that their next target was me, because through everything I didn't think of myself as someone evil. But then again it wasn't like I was a good person, I didn't like all that generosity crap, helping others, I was more of an... Anti hero. Yes, an anti hero, that was me. I nodded, as if needing to agree with myself to believe it.
"We're leaving now. If it's 3pm on the 16th here... By the time we get back it should be about... 8pm. I assume you're still staying at mine aren't you?" Michael asked as he walked towards the cockpit. Did he say the 16th? How long had I been asleep for! Maybe he'd just misspoken, that was too long, yes I had everything, but two days couldn't have passed! In the past two weeks I'd only been aware of half of it...
"Did you say 16th?" I asked casually. "And yes, if you don't mind. I still have to finish my assignment." I didn't disclose any more than that, he knew a little but no where near enough to put together all the pieces.
"Yes I did, thought you'd upped and left me for a while. Until I saw you walking around with the guy running the show. Oh, he escaped by the way, only the expendables were... Expended." Well that was one way of putting it, but true. All the people running the show had probably escaped unharmed whilst the minions blindly following the orders paid the price of the deeds of those above them. Necessary though.
After a little more idle chit chat I left Michael to star piloting, I was hoping they'd get back ASAP but Michael didn't need to know I was in a hurry. Considering he wouldn't be rushing back it'd be about ten hours before we landed, hopefully that was enough time to finish going through all this new information I'd got, I was a very fast reader. The power sources though would have to wait until I got back, I wasn't sure what would happen when I put them together but it could be explosive, I didn't want to risk blowing up the jet halfway across the Atlantic. Nope, I didn't see the appeal to that. And surely it wouldn't take more than a minute or two to put the two things together, so yeah, I had plenty of time. After that I'd be able to go home and carry on with everything as best as I could.
...Or maybe I'd just move in with Michael, he was pleasant company. And it's not like I would be taking up all the space because half his time he spent away on military duty, the other half I was away doing my own duty. It could work out well, of course I'd have to ask him first, unlike my Dad I wasn't cocky enough to just move into someone's house without telling them first, moving into their house, yeah I'd do that, just I'd tell them first - It's a long story.
As I was looking through a particular file on a new nuclear weapon that was being developed thanks to what little information Hydra had been able to get from the Chitauri Scepter I became aware of that sensation again. The one where I swore I could feel the energy that was in the Scepter and the Orb, but, again, I convinced myself I couldn't, unless by some weird circumstance I could now detect magic. That would be cool. Yup, pretty awesome, but unfortunately, I couldn't, because I was human, and human's were as close as one could get to being blind to magic. We only saw what was right in front of our eyes, and even then things could be hidden in plain sight. That put us at a great disadvantage compared to the rest of the nine realms. Except for Thor - and Loki now it seemed - I'd never seen anyone that wasn't from Midgard, maybe we weren't the only realm that had lost touch with the magic of the land, but I'd probably never get a chance to find out.
Still, I felt the tug of the energy. I couldn't pretend it wasn't there because the longer I was around it the stronger it seemed to feel and to say it was unnerving didn't even begin to describe it. After trying and failing numerous times to concentrate on the text that was filling the screen on the small laptop monitor that lived in the front of the plane, immediately behind the doors to the cockpit I gave up and grunted in frustration. Walking over to where I knew the power sources were I picked up the bag that contained the scepter and the glass box in which the orb was encased and threw it as hard as I could against the wall. I knew I couldn't break it by accident, these things weren't fragile, then again I was a lot stronger than the average human.
If Michael heard the thud and the crack as the glass that encased the orb split he didn't let on. Hopefully he wouldn't notice the slight dent in the supposedly strong metal that made the shell of the jet either. I didn't bother picking up the bag as I stormed past it to the other side of the plane, as far away from it as possible. It didn't help though, I could still feel it. It wouldn't leave me, I could tell it was there, it felt like it was calling out to me. Maybe I was just becoming paranoid? Oh, screw that, I didn't know, all that I was sure of was I shouldn't have been feeling this, I didn't know how but I just knew that this was more like a symptom of something. How did I know? Well, I couldn't really describe it but it felt like something was awakening inside me, something I had no idea even existed inside me before. It felt completely foreign but at the same time it felt so powerful, so good, and exotic. But it wasn't natural to be feeling this, and that scared me. Nothing had truly scared me in a long time but this did. That was the thought that stayed with me as I tucked myself away into the smallest spot at the end of the jet and curled up into a ball, trying to shield myself from that feeling, but I couldn't, it taunted me for the whole flight back.
Stark Tower
It had been a few days now and things were getting easier for the Avengers. That morning Thor had returned to Asgard, with the intentions of asking Heimdall what he could see of Danielle. Yesterday Steve and Natasha had gone to Sam Wilson's apartment in the hopes that he was there and could tell them more about this Michael. Tony had wanted to come too but he was too drunk to walk from his bed - yes, the bar had now seemed to have moved to within the reach of his bed - to the front door.
It seemed luck was on their side that day because they'd caught him the day before he was leaving on another mission.
~Flashback~
"Steve? Why, I don't believe it, you haven't aged a day since I last saw you! Neither have you actually Natasha..." Sam frowned. What he didn't know was the Avengers - with the exception of Thor and Steve - had been given a serum, far more basic than Steve's that slowed their ageing process immensely, of course Coulson, Hill and Fury had the injection too, who would run S.H.I.E.L.D. without them?
"Hey Sam, d'you have a minute?" Steve asked and followed Sam inside after he'd gestured for the two people to step inside.
"What can I do to help you?" Sam asked as they all sat down in his small living room.
Natasha got straight to the point. "What do you know about Michael Roberts? And more importantly what's his connection to Danielle?" It took Sam a few moments to answer, no doubt he was carefully considering his answer, Michael was his friend after all.
"Why do you want to know?" Sam finally replied. Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know?" It was meant to be a rhetorical question but Sam answered nevertheless.
"Yes actually, I do." Steve nodded at Natasha, signalling they could trust him and she launched into her story. It didn't take too long to recount because in all honesty they didn't know that much, Dani had upped and left before they even had a chance to think of locking the door, not that it would have helped, she did have the SSS serum in her after all.
"She has a sword? A Japanese sword! How the hell did she get that-" Boys. Natasha mentally thought, of course the fact that would seem important to them was the weapon, although Natasha had to admit she was surprised too, she didn't know anyone even knew how to use a sword any more, most people preferred guns. She preferred guns. How could a sword compete with that? She didn't know how lethal the more traditional weapons could be, who could blame her though, she'd never seen Loki or Dani use their throwing knives, she wouldn't have come to her conclusion otherwise. Lethal didn't do them justice. "-Wait, you said she had a sheath of something? Knives! Michael had a set bought specially not a week or two ago, said it was a birthday present for an old friend." So Danielle and Michael definitely knew each other, after all Dani's birthday was in two days, they had to find her before then.
Danielle's betrayal had hit her hard, she thought she was close to Dani, surely she would have noticed if something was amiss with her, wouldn't she? But she'd spent the past couple days thinking really hard and had realized something. Something big. They'd just outcast her from the family. And for no reason. That broke her heart, part of the family was gone because they had hastily accused her. None of them had known any of the facts, that's what they were trying to learn now, the word magic had been said and had sent sirens blaring in all of their heads and they didn't even try to understand, they didn't ask her if she was okay, they just thought if there was magic it meant another realm, and if there was another realm that meant an enemy and possibly another attempt at world domination, one that Danielle was a part of.
It was then she realized she'd zoned out of the conversation and had missed all the information Sam had given, Steve was getting up now so Natasha did too.
"Bye." Steve called over his shoulder as he walked away from the building. Natasha asked what Sam had said.
"You weren't listening?" This struck Steve as odd, she was always focused, but he knew how everything had effected Natasha. Steve had just tried not to think of it, he was the leader of the Avengers, he had to stay strong for them all, when all this mess was over he could then take the time to reflect on Dani's betrayal. He had his doubts though. Who could blame him? He was a man of hope and what had they done? They had panicked after seeing the video footage and hastily pushed the blame to the easiest person possible: Danielle. And that was shallow of them. All six of them were adults, supposedly heroes, and Dani was just the child, who, for all they knew, had been dragged into a horrific dreamlike state with their enemies - not her enemies, because how could she have enemies? She lived a normal life, well as normal as she could, but had refused to do any super hero stuff, not that he would have let her anyway - and then been suddenly outcast by her own family. They all seemed to think it was her who had betrayed them... But maybe it was the other way round.
"Steve?" Natasha pulled him back to reality, it was no he realized he'd stopped walking right in the middle of the street and Natasha was looking at him worriedly but also with understanding.
"Yes, uh, Sam! Yes, he said that Michael had left nearly a week ago to Mount Hercules, where it seems many of the most wanted list are gathering together, with a woman who'd been given special permission to go by the Vice-President of America. He didn't see her clearly, but he seemed to find it hard to believe it was Danielle, because he didn't think Michael would ever let a child accompany him but there was definitely the tip of a sword peeking up the end of her jacket." Natasha nodded along taking in the information. Steve would have liked to ask more but it seemed that was all Sam had been willing to disclose.
"Time to go back and tell the others?" Steve asked, beginning to walk again.
"Let's hope Tony isn't completely wasted." Natasha replied though she knew that was being a little optimistic.
A/N: So can anyone guess what's happening to Danielle? Favourite this and you get Loki's scepter, follow it and you get the orb. (and no I can't literally give it to you only mentally for those of you who superly wish you cuold just fangirl everything into existence, *whispers* I do too.)