A/N: Hello agents! Thank you for staying with me. For now this will be the last chapter. As I've announced last week I'm taking a break for a few weeks, gather my thoughts, try to put some things in the right order. the story isn't done, but there is stuff going on in my life and I don't want the quality of my work to suffer because of it. I hope you understand.
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A big thank you to my big sis sweetwaterspice. You are not only proof-reading my shit you also use a red marker to point it out :D Luv ya.
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Thanks so much for coming on this journey! I love you all!
Chapter 10: The life of an agent
After a short briefing, Coulson sends the small team on their mission. Tris was relieved that Bobbi was one of the agents, but was a bit irritated that Lance Hunter, Bobbi's ex-husband and Tris' current pain in the butt tagged along also. She knew that Hunter and Bobbi still loved each other and despite their bickering they always made sure that the other was safe. It seemed natural that Coulson would send those two together.
Upon seeing photos of the hideout, Tris recognized one face: Grant Ward. Now she understood why Coulson wouldn't send Daisy. Even after everything that happened Tris knew that at some point Daisy loved that traitor. It makes perfect sense why she was the obvious choice. The only other person who could pick up the obelisk would have been Lincoln, Daisy's boyfriend, but that would have ended in a disaster. No, she had to go. She would have to deal with Tobias later. Besides, they all knew this might happen. Before anything she is a SHIELD agent. Her duty is toward the agency. Family and friends later. Right?
The quinjet is approaching the Hydra hideout and the agents plus Iron Man get ready. They decided to leave Tony behind for a while, so that the trained specialists could do a recon and assess the situation before advertising their arrival. Everyone in the world knew who Iron Man was and they didn't need to alert the enemy of their presence.
Using earpieces the three agents slowly started closing in on their target. Once the coast was clear Tris alerts Tony where she is, so that he can come and help her retrieve the intel they needed. Meanwhile, Bobbi and Hunter knocked out one agent after the other. It seems these bastards get weaker and dumber every time.
"Bloody hell," Hunter says as he knocks out his fifth opponent.
"Pull yourself together, Hunter," Bobbi says a little irritated.
"What? I'm not saying they are hard to beat, just that they are so many," he complains.
"Guys, does any of you have eyes on Ward?" Tris asks them, hoping to stop the unnecessary talk.
"Negative," Bobbi replies.
"Nope," comes from Hunter.
Tris turns to Tony who got out of his suit to work his magic with the central computer. For a low-profile hideout, this place looks very high tech. Tris can't shake the feeling that something is off. They had intel of several more Hydra agents but on her way to the control room Tris barely saw two. The ones Hunter and Bobbi already knocked out don't compare to the number they actually expected. Something is fishy.
"Hurry up, Tony. Something's wrong here, but I don't know what," Tris says just as an explosion is heard. She ducks under the desk and draws her gun. Tony gets into his suit and gets into a fighting position. Tris calls Bobbi and Hunter in but there is no response.
A large man enters the control room and fires an EMP at Tony which renders his suit temporarily useless.
"God damn it," he curses.
The young agent gets out and starts firing, but each bullet is repelled and the large man now looks at her for the first time. Tris empties her mag but the giant doesn't even move a muscle. She ponders if she should transform or not, but right now her powers aren't common knowledge and she doesn't want to give up her advantage. She tries to concentrate and soon realizes he is Inhuman. Maybe if she lets him know they are the same he will reconsider hurting her. "Who am I kidding? He's Hydra. He won't care," she thinks to herself. Just as she reflects upon her options a familiar yet undesirable face appears in the door.
"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" Ward says entering the room and passing the giant.
"Ward," Tris says through gritted teeth.
"Agent Prior. Long time no see," he says snickering.
"Drop dead," she curses.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," he says and walks closer to where Tony lies down. Tris hopes Jarvis[1] keeps the suit locked. "I never thought Coulson would send an Avenger to check out this little place. It's so insignificant for that," he says and turns to look at the young woman.
"Well, we all got bored and decided to just raid one of your hideouts," she retorts bitchy.
"My, my. What a temper. I wonder if your new husband knows that mouth of yours."
"Leave him out of this," she says, her voice dead cold, but her heart is beating very fast. Damn you, Ward.
"What?"
"I didn't come after you when you killed your folks. Leave my family out of this," she says and Ward nods.
"I always appreciated this about you. Unlike others you understand that only we are allowed to deal with family," he says and sits down on the chair previously occupied by Stark.
"Ward, I don't like you and I couldn't care less about your diabolical family. I read your file and you probably read mine. I know that Garrett[2] wanted to recruit me, but I was too loyal to SHIELD for him to even try," Tris says and Ward nods.
"I know. He told me. But Romanov was your SO[3] and I told John it would be suicide to include you," Ward reveals.
"So, what next?" Tris asks, even though she already knows the answer to that one.
Three hours later...
Tony is still in his suit. He decided to play dead until Jarvis finished copying all the files on the server. Tony specifically created a virus that would not only break through all firewalls and remain undetected, but would also copy all the files and send them to a secure server of his own. It was a good thing Pepper[4] suggested he modify the suit to act "dead" but still function at full capacity.
On his right he identified Bobbi Morse shackled to a chair, while Lance Hunter is on his left lying down all beaten up and bloody. He is alive, but just barely. Those Hydra fuckers really did a good job with the mouthy Brit.
As for Tris, she was sitting patiently on a chair in front of a desk, not saying anything. Tony wondered why she was so silent, but then Ward opened the door. The Hydra agent enters the room and sits down on the chair in front of Tris.
"You're a tough cookie. No wonder Garrett wanted to recruit you. Too bad you are loyal to SHIELD," Ward says chuckling.
"Fuck you," Tris curses.
"Aw, that's not very nice," Ward says and does something that makes Tris wince. Tony can't see what is happening and he can't risk moving without letting the enemy know he is awake.
"You can torture me as much and as long as you want. We both went through the same training at the Academy," Tris says, her voice strained.
"Nah, Garrett was extra helpful in that department," Ward says leaning back in his chair.
"So was Romanov," Tris retorts.
"Touche. But I need you to tell me where your little base is located," Ward says.
"Tahiti[5]," Tris replies immediately.
"That's funny," Ward says unamused. "You'll talk, even if I have to rip each finger nail out or break each of your pretty little girly bones in half to get what I need."
"I suggest you start now, you sick son of a bitch," Tris curses. Ward stands up and connects his fist with Tris' face, knocking her out. He leaves the room and the prisoners be. For the moment.
The room remains silent for another ten minutes before a groan is heard from Hunter. He is sitting up, with somewhat difficulty and looks around.
"Hey, Bob. You alright, love?" he asks.
"Yeah. But Tris is in not in such good shape. We need to get out of here."
"What about the metal suit?" he asks referring to Tony.
"I'm up. I just let them think I'm knocked out," Tony tells them as quietly as possible.
"Nice," the Brit says sarcastically. "The billionaire went into sleep mode while us bastards get bloody beaten up."
"Hunter, enough," Tris says.
"Tris, you alright?" Bobbi asks concerned.
"Peachy. Stark, are you done?" she asks and both Bobbi and Hunter exchange strange looks not understanding the meaning of the question, but remain silent nevertheless.
"Yes. Ready when you are," he replies.
"Good. Hunter, can you move?" she asks.
"Not without difficulty," he replies and stands up.
"Bobbi?" Tris asks her friend.
"Yes. I just need to get rid of these," she says and pulls at her restraints.
"Tony, help her first and then me."
Stark gets up and using a precision laser frees first Bobbi and then Tris. It's only now when he stands in front of her that he sees what they have been doing to her.
"Fuck, that must hurt," he says.
"I'm fine. But I won't be able to use my right hand for a while," Tris answers.
"I activated the autopilot of the quinjet and put in our coordinates. Cloaking is up and ETA two minutes," Bobbi informs.
"Are we supposed to bloody teleport, Bob?" Hunter asks irritated.
"No, you dimwit. Stark will blow a hole into the wall," she says rolling her eyes.
"Oh, that makes sense. What about the bad guys?" Hunter asks.
"They are occupied with some other shit on the other side of the hideout," Stark informs.
"Let's go," Tris commands, but winces from the pain.
Stark uses one of his thrusters and blows a hole big enough for them to slip through. Thankfully the quinjet already reached their location and they board the small aircraft and fly away before the Hydra agents even register what happened.
Tris sits down next to Bobbi who is currently patching up Hunter, since he is much more injured than Tris or herself, while Stark flies the quinjet back to base. Once Bobbi is done with Hunter she wants to take care of Tris but she refuses on the grounds that Bobbi should take care first of herself. After a little arguing Bobbi accepts her defeat and patches herself up quickly to get on with Tris.
Once the quinjet lands a medical team receives the injured agents and take them to the infirmary where Coulson ordered a special mobile command center. He lets Stark explain what he found and transfers the data onto the SHIELD secure server, keeping a copy to himself.
Tris proceeds to tell her boss about the Inhuman giant who could withstand gunfire as if nothing. Tony confirms that after scanning the entire hideout with special scanners the size and looks of fireflies that there was no obelisk there or at least not when they got there.
Coulson sighs. They hoped they could retrieve such a dangerous object, but they would get another chance. Hopefully soon.
He dismisses his agents and asks Stark to fly Tris back home.
Tris wasn't at all pleased to go home. She was beaten up, tortured, but more importantly pissed that Ward now knew her weakness. Well, he knew about it before. But now he is invested in her. He wants to break her otherwise he wouldn't have insisted in torturing her himself. That bastard was out for blood and Tris knew that he wouldn't stop until he was dead. So, that was Tris' new personal goal: kill Grant Ward.
"Tony, I need your help," she says from the seat next to him in the cockpit.
"Sure, whatever you need Angel," he says sympathetic.
To maintain his "unconscious" status he had to watch in silence how his young friend and ally got beaten up by three guys and then tortured by Ward using powerful electric shocks. But it was only after he got up to release her from her restraints did he see what he did to her. Using long sharp and thick needles he pushed the tips beneath her fingernails deep into her fingers prolonging her pain and multiplying it. He had no idea how she didn't cry out in pain each time a new needle was forced into her. When he asked her he shuddered. At one point, he heard her whimper, but thought she was crying in frustration. That bastard injected her with a powerful drug to keep her paralyzed and an anesthetic to keep her from feeling the pain. It was only after the latter wore off that she would feel the pain and all at once, tenfold, as it normally would.
Tony clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He saw how hard the SHIELD agents worked and fought and to experience how they got tortured by a low-life like Ward just disgusted him. Of course he would help her with anything. She was brave and loyal and deserved a timeout.
A/N: If I have messages for you I'll just post AN here.
[1] Artificial Intelligence – named after Stark's late butler and friend. The AI controls the suit when Tony isn't in it.
[2] John Garrett – recruited Ward when he was a teenager and turned him into a Hydra agent. He was killed a few weeks after the revelation of Hydra within SHIELD. He is also responsible for Ward's evil side, so to speak.
[3] SO – supervising officer
[4] Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's girlfriend and CEO of his company
[5] Tahiti is a double entendre. During season one we learn that former director of SHIELD, Nick Fury, used a secret program to revive the current director Phil Coulson. The codename was TAHITI. Ward knows of its meaning, being part of the original Coulson team when they discover the truth.
Transmission: End.