Warning: A lot of Dani swearing in this chapter, she's not in a good mood okay, she has a good excuse!
Stark Tower - about 8pm, still on the 16th
"Sir, Michael Roberts has just returned from his mission." Jarvis stated. Tony, who had sobered up now, though not by choice - he'd ran out of alcohol. - demanded they go over and question this Michael, and why he'd let their child go on a dangerous mission with him. Everyone agreed that they ought to find out what his connection to Dani was.
"So who's going to go?" Clint asked. "I think we should all go, it'll add a level of intimidation. Anyway, I don't think any of us want to be left behind." Steve had to admit Clint had a point, no one would be particularly happy to have to be the one waiting back at the tower.
Jarvis gave Tony the directions on his iPhone, obviously one with modifications on it, because he was an engineer after all, tinkering with stuff was what he did. Tony drove one car, with Steve and Bruce coming with him whilst Natasha drove another of his convertibles with Clint.
From what Jarvis had told them Mr Roberts had only just arrived back to Steve told everyone they should go to the airbase instead, there would be a debriefing before the soldier could go home. The change of destination only added a minute or two to the travel time, after all, they weren't ones for following traffic laws, much to Steve's dismay.
As they barged into the hanger they were bombarded with the smell of fuel and oil, they seemed to be servicing the jet at the scanned the room for the highest ranked person and saw him leaving with a man, appearing to be in his late twenties, possibly twenty eight - he was good with ages - and a woman with a black leather jacket, hood covering her features. Dani! Steve was planning on going for subtlety, but Tony obviously didn't know of the word.
"Hold the fuck up there young lady!" Tony shouted in a booming voice, one he only reserved for people he was extremely angry with, causing everyone to momentarily stop what they were doing to glance at the newcomers, go back to their work then stop again once they realized who it was. The woman froze for a millisecond, gave a quick glance to her right, to the man standing beside her and then bolted. No one seemed to be the least bit curious or confused when they saw her suddenly break into a sprint, that was a little odd, wasn't it? And the slight hesitation made it clear this person was definitely a hostile, most likely Dani, otherwise why would they have ran? And with the reference 'young lady' only a, well, young lady would be likely to immediately know the command was directed at them.
Clint got back in the car, probably looking to do some massive skid in front of her, Tony liked to show off like that. Bruce calmly carried on what he'd been doing, it seemed as soon as they'd arrived something had caught his interest and he'd gone off to be all sciency. Natasha had... Disappeared. "Agents." Steve muttered to himself, shaking his head as he ran out of the hanger, hoping to meet Dani off halfway, from watching Tony it seemed he couldn't directly follow her. Tony had tried to follow her, but the officers were blocking his way, as if they were the threat, Dani had to have friends in high places, but Steve already knew that, she'd been granted permission to accompany on a mission with a top secret branch of the military by the Vice President of the United State of America! He couldn't understand how they'd missed all this. Dani was convening with people that weren't from earth, she was personal friends with someone who was in a secret part of the military with the likes of Sam Wilson, also personally knew the Vice President of America, and God knew what else! Did they really neglect to give any sort of attention to Dani? Or was it just that she was a master at hiding things and was a champion of the poker face?
When Natasha saw the woman next to this 'Michael Roberts' she immediately knew it was Dani, they were close, she could just tell it was her, and the fact that she'd bought that jacket for Dani three weeks ago helped too. She decided it would be best to go wait by the gates to leave the facility, which wasn't too far away, just in case anything went down. She'd scouted this base before and knew it was the only way out if you were going by car, or van or lorry, or... Well you got the gist. That wasn't entirely true, because there was one other way out, every facility like this had one, but that was one only used in code red situations, like if the President of the United States needed to get away from an impending terrorist attack, very serious shit.
Natasha jogged down to the gate and waited in the shadows, expecting just to wait here until the rest of the Avengers passed by again so she could pop back into the convertible. They'd have Dani in the back and all would be well. After all, they were the Avengers, if they said they needed to bring someone in no one in that military facility was going to oppose them, they probably didn't have a clue who Danielle was. Her only concern was how Danielle would take it, would she give herself up, perhaps not proving she was innocent but helping to convince then, or would she run away - and still be caught - but make her position and everyone's trust in her hang on an even more precarious bridge?
She'd barely been there a minute when she heard the sound of an approaching car, peeking out from the shadows she saw it was not one that belonged to Stark and it didn't look very military-like either. And it had to be owned by someone with serious money to burn, it was one of the most expensive commercial cars... It was a Aston fucking Martin one-77, it was nearly two million dollars a pop! And it was easily travelling at one hundred miles an hour and it was getting closer, quickly but it was still a while off yet. It most certainly didn't look friendly, unless there had been another hostile at the scene Natasha couldn't think of who's it was or more importantly, who was driving it. She was pretty damned sure Dani couldn't drive a car, and she most certainly didn't own a car, and Natasha had now convinced herself she wasn't guilty so Danielle had no reason to 'escape'.
Natasha wasn't dumb she could see this was a hostile so the best thing she could do was jump out in front of it and then it'd end up swerving to the side or something, or she'd just jump onto the car, Natasha liked to live dangerously like that. So that was exactly what she did, stand right in the middle of the road. But then she made the mistake of looking at the driver, because the car was a lot closer now and she had keener eyes, travelling at 45m per second it had gotten close pretty quickly. And she froze. It was Dani, and she had that look again. The look she'd been wearing when she'd left Stark Tower, the one that reminded her so much of herself, a look of detachment, the look of an assassin, cold, heartless, just a guy doing their job. But even Natasha had never seen a poker face that good, because your eyes could never lie, that was the fatal weakness, and seriously, her eyes were completely devoid of emotion, she was like a fucking robot! Natasha had never seen anyone manage to put up a wall that big, one that meant you could truly detach yourself from what you were doing, that's because work and personal things usually merged, and it was fair to say they were merging now. She'd though Danielle was innocent, how could someone who was a good guy go through with playing chicken with the stakes as high as they were? Did Dani even realize that by doing this she could get her chances of becoming an Avengers impossible, Fury would be, well, furious, and he wouldn't trust Dani again for a loooooong time. And with all of this she was still driving towards her!
Natasha, being Natasha decided to play chicken, Danielle had about five second to swerve away before Natasha would have to break into a serious sprint out of the way. Yet Natasha could see that this wasn't the little Danielle they always thought she was, this was an entirely different person, one with the look of a villain on her, one who wouldn't be the one to turn away, one that would run over Natasha if it meant getting away. But Natasha couldn't move! She was stuck to the spot, the surprise, the betrayal, her emotions keeping her in her place, overloading her mind. She could see the car speeding towards her in slow motion, and she knew she would have to move, even with this version of the super serum inside her, one that gave her slightly faster healing and let her withstand more physical harm would have difficulty saving her from a crash like this.
The car had reached her, she felt as if she'd ran head on into an immovable object, and then a crack, and nothing.
Dani's POV
I was getting off the jet, looking forward to getting back home and receiving the hero's welcome, or at least a thank you for getting all that info for S.H.I.E.L.D. and with the help of Michael, eliminating - or at least postponing - what looked to be a serious threat.
I was feeling a little weird, my emotions had gone all wacky, but I put that down to the betrayal from the Avengers, that wasn't the weird part after all. No, the weird thing, was this compulsion like feeling I felt when it came to the task I'd been given. I mean, when I first woke up from that dream thing I could have easily ignored it, under normal circumstances I would have gone and told Thor his brother was a lying bastard who was still alive, but when the situation had finally came around I'd decided to participate in his delusional plans, I'd taken what Loki'd said as true and got what he'd asked for.
Somehow I knew I wouldn't survive this mission, it was one assignment to out of my depth. I knew of what happened to those who touched the tesseract, and surely the same rules applied to the orb, because both were very similar. It was a simple concept really, inside the objects were almost unlimited supplies of raw energy, a human body - like mine - or any living thing for that matter could not handle even a fraction of that energy, and I would be holding one, maybe two of them. If that didn't kill me than what would. So why was I going through with this all? What reason did I have to do what that arrogant bastard told me? None, I simply couldn't think of any reason why I could sympathize, I just couldn't, yet there was still that compulsion in the back of my mind.
And that damn feeling still hadn't gone away! Yes, the other damn feeling, not the one I had just been inner monologuing about, the feeling of the energy. both dad and father had been around the tesseract at one point or another and they said they hadn't felt anything from it? The was complete bullshit! Even the scepter had so much power in it that it pulsed off of it, how could they not sense it when it wouldn't leave me alone?
It was fair to say being in close proximity to the power source wasn't doing me any favours, it was driving me fucking mad, and not in the insane way, in the angry way. But I was still happy on the surface, I liked the easy going company of Michael, I liked the feeling that for once I wasn't 'helping' S.H.I.E.L.D. by killing a bunch of people but I was really saving a bunch of lives, pretty much the whole universe to be precise.
So when I heard the voice of my dad shouting from across the hanger bay I froze in surprise, I hadn't counted on them finding me so fast, they couldn't find me before I'd finished my job! And that feeling of compulsion was coming back, one that told me to do whatever the cost to get the job done, I could run, I could fight, as long as I put the two powers together it was justified to use whatever means necessary.
Out of the two - fighting or running - I decided running was the better of the two. I knew the guy in charge of the operations here, another associate of mine, he understood I was doing something important and would cover my back to give me a chance to leave, even if that did mean trying to contain the Avengers - probably minus the Hulk though, they wouldn't let the Other Guy out would they? Nooo, I wasn't that much of a threat yet.
I quickly glanced at Michael, giving a distressed look towards him and the officer we'd been talking to, a look asking for time. Like I'd said, they knew that I wasn't exactly on friendly terms with the Avengers, actually, everyone seemed to know, I didn't know how but they just seemed to... Maybe I was just giving off more hostile vibes than usual? Then again, I always seemed to give off cold vibes, except half the time it would be covered with some sort of witty sarcasm, I guess I got it off my dad.
Michael gave me an understanding look and I didn't wait another second before bursting into a full speed run, running the fastest I had in a long time. I knew that immediately father would try to follow me, and though I had the SSS serum in me he was still older, bigger, and faster, if he caught up with me I probably wouldn't be able to get away, especially if everyone else had came all geared up too.
"Where to go?" I muttered as I ran out the back of the hanger, the opposite side to where the Avengers had walked in. I looked left and right as I ran until my eyes landed upon the perfect escape. Not too far in front of me was an Aston Martin one-77. Wait, it was my Aston Marting one-77, - yes I knew that technically I wasn't old enough for a car but when you were as rich as I was, or when your dad was as rich as he was, you could get virtually anything through... connections. - when did it get here? It had been weeks since I'd last seen it, and the white reflected the bright sunlight. To me, it was the most stunning car in the world, and it could go fast as fuck. "Easily fast enough to get away." And by doing this it would mean no one would get hurt.
Pushing myself harder I sped towards my car, I wasn't sure if any of the Avengers had managed to catch up with me, all I could hear was the blood rushing through my veins. They weren't supposed to find me yet! I had to complete my mission, if they caught me we'd all be fucked. If they arrested me now, I'd be a villain if they'd only waited a day I could be a hero, someone back to being in the clear. My bag was hitting against the side of my leg with every step, it wasn't painful but it slowed my quite a bit, still, it took me mere seconds to run the 100 or so metres to my car, then I remembered I didn't have the keys with me.
"Dammit!" I shouted, I didn't want to vandalize my own car! Needs must, I guessed, but it wasn't like I couldn't get it repaired, or just repair it myself. I groaned in resignation before punching the drivers side window, it smashed into many pieces, some large, others closer to the size of a grain of sand, virtually all on the drivers seat. Reaching inside the car I manually unlocked it - it had been a long time since I'd done that! - hoped inside and brushed off as much of the glass as possible.
Suddenly my head was spinning, and I felt like vomiting, what the hell was this? I screamed at my body to stop it's whining, now was not the time to be ill, now was not the time to even think about being sick. My day, no scrap that, my week, really couldn't get any worse could it? Oh shit, had I just jinxed it? - Yes, so what, I believes in things like this, just like I believed there was no such thing as a coincidence.
Sucking in a deep breath, I tried to ignore the pain that was pounding against my head, it felt as if there was the pressure of the universe pushing against my skull from all sides, and that was saying something.
"Just fucking drive Dani, you can pass out in your free time." I said to myself through gritted teeth. Not bothering to put my seatbelt on - because where was the fun in that? - I floored the gas pedal, lurching backwards as the car sped forwards. 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, and getting faster. In front of me I could see the open gates of the exit, thank the norns they'd thought to open it from the hanger office otherwise I'd be in serious trouble, I was going at least 100mph, there would have been no time to stop without a crash, or a huge skid from turning the corner to hard, that would ruin my tires, I did not want to ruin anything else on my perfect car!
Then the pain worsened by at least ten times, I didn't know headaches could even physically hurt so bad? What on earth was bringing this on? I wasn't ill last time I checked and this was certainly not stress! It got so bad my vision started to blur, as in seriously blur, and I began crying - yup the pain was making me physically cry - that didn't help with my visibility problems. This of course meant I couldn't see anything in front of me, I only hoped I was still going in the direction I had been, straight towards the gates and not heading towards a large brick wall, because that would not end painlessly.
I gave it five seconds, that was how long I had before I told the pain it could go and fuck itself, I was Dani, pain would listen to me! I was not going to get ill, not now, not ever!
"Five seconds, that's all you've got Danielle." I mentally counted the five seconds, putting my head against the steering wheel, silently hoping I wasn't about to crash. At the end of those precious seconds I blinked a few times, used one hand to wipe away the tears, before slipping my mental mask back on - it was a mask? Right? I wasn't too sure any more, for some reason I'd been doing a lot of self-reflection, that was never a good thing, not if it was me doing the reflection at least. - and looking back up to, what was, thank the Gods, still the driveway to the gate and not some wall.
Almost instantaneously something caught my eye, something standing right in the centre of the road blocking my exit, a millisecond later I realized it was aunt Natasha.
"No!" I screamed, as she crashed against the wind shield, leaving a web shaped crack on the window. She had been metres away when I'd made eye contact with her, there was no time to stop, why did she have to be so stupid? Standing in front of a car moving at... 175mph! Did she have a death wish or something? Or was this some sick way to get more blame put onto me? Was she really willing to risk her life to antagonize me further? Is that what things had come to!
"And my car is damaged!" I shouted straight afterwards, was it really so hard a concept for people to understand; I didn't want to wreck my beautiful car. "Woah, what are you saying?" I asked myself in shock, I'd possibly killed one of my closest friends/not-really-family-aunt and I was thinking about the damage she'd done to the car? Was I really that shallow?
"For fucks sakes." I sighed. I couldn't stop, no matter how much I wanted to. There were plenty of reasons why. Firstly, that wouldn't reverse what happened. Secondly, I didn't think I could go back and see Natasha dead on the ground knowing it was me that caused it. Thirdly, I would get arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. and possibly locked up in their high-high-super-mother-fucking-level-threat-prison-but-also-probably-torture-house, yes, I'd really named it that, of HLTP (High level torture prison) for short, in the spirit of S.H.I.E.L.D. and all that- Wait I was getting off point here! Fourth, the Avengers would all see me, by her, and bam, there went their trust in me two - not that I had it any more, they'd betrayed me and no doubt they'd still know her death was my fault, no one, not even someone with a little of the serum in her, which was mainly aimed to slow aging not stop death, could survive a crash like that. She had hit the front of the car - head injury from the looks of it, as well as probably every other part of her body - gone right over the top and landed on the floor in the middle of the road. And finally, I still had a mission complete, let Natasha's death not have been in vein! I could still save everyone else, and that was exactly what I was going to do next, even if it meant I had to die in the process, like I'd mentioned earlier, right in the back of my mind I knew I couldn't possibly survive. Come on, a mortal couldn't even touch the tesseract without dying, I was going to be holding double that amount of energy, my instincts were telling me something was going to go down, something big, something that felt suspiciously like a foreboding of death, and my instincts had never been wrong up 'til now.
It's time to finish this. I thought as I looked in the mirror and saw the faint outline of aunt Natasha's body on the ground, rapidly moving into the distance as I worked my way back to one of the main roads. Though to the casual observer I was serious faced, calm, collected, inside my emotions were raging a war against themselves. Guilt, purpose, hurt, betrayal, sorrow...
A/N: So, can anyone guess what's happening to Danielle yet? It's gonna be big, yup, and awesome, even if it's just bringing her pain - literally - now. Remember to follow and favourite, au revoir!