Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
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Three days later, Wanda was awoken at about five in the morning by a sharp knock on her bedroom door. "Rise and shine!" Natasha called. "We leave in twenty minutes. If you're not on the Quinjet by then, we leave without you!"
She practically fell out of bed, trying to remember exactly why she was being roused at such an ungodly hour. And then she remembered that this happened to be her first ever mission.
The rest of the team ate breakfast in a tense silence. There was no sign of the usual banter and offhanded chatting that so often characterized the Avengers' mornings; everything was still and quiet. The others called a hello to her as she grabbed a couple of waffles hot off the griddle but no one said anything.
"Does everyone know what their jobs are?" Steve asked, taking charge of the situation like he always did. Of course everyone knew what to do-they'd only gone over the plan a thousand times the night before and ten thousand times in the days leading up to it. "There's no need to be nervous. You're all well prepared and I have no doubt you'll fight like real heroes." He met each of their eyes, pinning them in place with his stare. It could have been wishful thinking, but Wanda thought he looked at her longest of all-blue eyes blazing into brown. "All right? Let's go."
She considered throwing up as she joined the flow of people heading for the Quinjet and an uncertain future.
~V102~
They landed outside a huge grey warehouse as the first rays of pink sunlight colored the horizon like a bruise. Sam piloted the aircraft to a smooth landing half a mile away, setting it down in a quiet forest clearing as everyone else started to suit up. Weapons were stashed, jackets were zipped, and the back of the jet filled with a low murmur of voices. Everyone was at least a little bit nervous, even those who weren't on their very first mission. This was their first time working as a cohesive team; anything could happen.
"Lighten up." Steve said as the landing ramp hit the soft grass with a low thunk that seemed to reverberate through the aircraft. "You've all been training. You all know what to do. It's going to be fine."
"Easy for you to say." Rhodey said, pulling on his face mask. "Captain America."
"He's right." Natasha shot back. "Now let's go out there and do what needs to be done." She hit the ground running and everyone else had no choice but to follow. It was a quiet morning-too quiet. Pietro took each step forward with extreme caution; the last thing he needed was a cracked stick and a hive of angry cartel members on their tails.
Rhodey swore through the earpiece; he'd been sent ahead with Vision to establish a perimeter. "We're going to have company."
"How many?" Steve asked calmly. He didn't even sound fazed, though Pietro's heart felt like it was about to forcefully punch its way out of his chest.
"More than twenty."
"Call down. We can handle them. Just remember to dig in-and don't shoot to kill until it's absolutely necessary."
They hit at once like a wave of black costumed marauders and soon the air was filled with gunshots and bursts of laser fire. Pietro could barely see what was going on; all he knew was that if something moved and he didn't recognize it he was supposed to try his hardest to knock it out. One man and then two went down with a couple of quick punches and sprawled on the floor unmoving. "Nice job!" Sam said, high fiving him as he swept someone else out of the way with his metal wings. "Looks like you're a natural at this."
He shrugged. "I'm just trying my best."
They fought their way through the onslaught and into the warehouse proper, where moments before people had probably been going about their normal business stacking boxes of illegally acquired heroin and cocaine to be distributed on the black market. Now that the Avengers had arrived, they were all running around in disarray like a flack of headless chickens. It was almost too easy to corral them into one corner; they all seemed to cooperate once they knew just who was involved with the infiltration.
"Are you going to kill us?" a woman with short brown hair asked as she kept her hands in plain sight and her eyes trained nervously on the large gun situated on Rhodey's left shoulder.
"Not if you do exactly what we tell you to do." Natasha replied. "And answer all of our questions truthfully and promptly, of course. Where did you get all of this?" She gestured to the stacks of crates that surrounded them, nearly reaching the ceiling.
For a while, nobody said anything. They all looked at each other as if daring the others to break the confidence of their employer.
Steve sighed. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can tell me who you work for and I won't call the police. I know that some of you are undoubtedly here because you have no other choice-maybe you need the drugs, maybe you need the money…I don't know for sure, and to be honest I don't need to know. I don't want to have to call the police and have you all arrested, since I know some of you probably have families at home, but you need to cooperate. I'm giving you a second chance, and it's already running out."
There was another minute of tense silence before someone cracked-a man not much older than Pietro with wide green eyes and a face that looked like it belonged in a commercial for a beach resort in Hawaii. "We aren't the main base of operations."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked. "Who is?"
"We don't know his name. He just sends people twice a month to check up on us and make sure we're filling our quota. He's the one who buys everything. We just get the products ready to distribute."
"Where's the main base?" Natasha cut in.
"There isn't one." another woman replied. "He likes to keep his operations spaced out so that if one of them is compromised people like yourselves won't be able to find the rest." She glared at them as if their discovery of the base was a personal slight.
"Then where is his office?"
"It's worth more than our lives to tell you that. He'll find out-and he'll kill anyone and everyone who told his secrets."
For a while it seemed they were at a stalemate. No one said anything-until Steve nodded once. "I understand. I'll expect you to tell me if you hear anything that could be of interest-and if word gets back to me that you've ever been involved in anything like this I'll have the police on your tail before you can say the word 'busted'. Do I made myself clear?" Everyone nodded numbly and he turned to leave. "Oh-and consider this business shut down. Completely. I'm calling the police to deal with the rest of the drugs-you have approximately fifteen minutes to get out of here before they arrive."
~V102~
The Avengers regrouped back in the Quinjet, all in a celebratory mood over the success of their first ever mission. No one had even been hurt during the fight; all things considered, the whole thing had been a great success.
"Great job, everyone." Steve said once they were at a comfortable crusing altitude of 10,000 feet and heading back to the Base. "I didn't expect anything less."
"Are you all right?" Pietro asked out of habit as he dug his iPad out of his bag and took his usual seat beside Wanda so they could watch the sky passing by outside.
"Of course." she replied flippantly. "That was easy."
"Good." He clicked on the Netflix icon and waited impatiently for it to queue itself up. He hadn't had Netflix in Sokovia of course, and he still wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to survive without it for so long. "So, what do you want to do when we get back?" It was still midmorning; they had the entire rest of the day to themselves.
"I don't know. I might read-I haven't finished anything new in a while." There was just no time to read on top of the rest of their very busy lives. "What about you?"
"Sam wants me to go running with him. He says he knows this little café where they make the best protein shakes on the face of the planet."
"It sounds like you'll have a great time." She gave him one last smile before pulling out her own book.
As he settled in with Breaking Bad, Pietro finally felt like a real Avenger.
~V102~
"Ready?" Sam asked, pulling on his running jacket and a pair of new white tennis shoes.
"Yeah." Pietro stood by the door, shifting from foot to foot impatiently. "Does it always take you this long to get ready to go for a jog?"
Sam gave him The Look. "As a matter of fact, yes it does. Not all of us have super speed."
"Point taken. I'll meet you outside."
In about five minutes (that felt more like ten to Pietro) they were ready to go and heading with an easy jog down the thin gravel path that connected the base to the main roads. "Promise you're not going to do any funny business?" Sam asked. "I have to put up with enough of it from Cap as it is."
Pietro laughed. "Don't worry. I'll try to go slow." Unfortunately, his 'slow' was little more than a crawl. "So, I'd say the mission went pretty well."
"Yeah. I've seen missions go a lot shittier. Nice work-you and your sister both."
"Thanks. You didn't do so bad yourself."
"Thanks. This was your first time in the field, right?"
"Yes, other than Sokovia-and that was under extraordinary circumstances. I wasn't really sure what to expect."
"You learn pretty quickly that missions usually go one of two ways-they're extremely easy, like this one-or someone ends up severely injured." Pietro noticed how he didn't use the word 'dead'. "Looks like you two are going to be pretty heavy hitters."
He shook his head. "Wanda sure-but I can't really do much besides run fast."
Sam laughed. "You'd be surprised how many people wish they could do what you do. Running faster than the speed of sound is nothing to shake a stick at. How do you like being a part of the team?"
"It's amazing. It feels like we're finally doing what we signed up for all those years ago." They were finally saving people. They were finally making a difference. "There's just a huge blank spot in my memory from that year I spent in Korea." Things skipped directly from the Battle of Sokovia to the first day he'd woken up at the clinic; even now it was incredibly hard to believe an entire year had passed. Another Super Bowl had been played and won, some movies he'd been eagerly waiting to see were on Blu ray and DVD…and he remembered none of it. It was like nothing had ever happened to him in the first place.
"That's rough. Do you guys get up at night sometimes? I hear you in the kitchen sometimes, making tea or something."
"Sorry. It's…with the nightmares-"
"No, I get it. I have plenty of sleepless nights too. I served two tours in the Air Force myself-and I was a paratrooper. I've seen plenty of things myself that no one should have to see."
"I'm sorry-"
"Have you tried milk in your tea? Calms you right down."
"I'll have to try that next time."
"Anyway, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying that I know how you feel. Sometimes life hands you…shit and there's nothing you can do about it except try to move on."
"Don't I know it." They jogged in silence for a while; there seemed to be nothing else to say after a revelation like that.
Finally Sam stopped at a little wooden store set back a ways from the road. On closer inspection it was a combination of coffee shop and all-purpose general store. Half of it was crowded with chairs and simple wooden tables while racks of sweatshirts, camping supplies, and even a few plastic beach toys competed for space on the other side. A weathered wooden sign above the cash register proudly proclaimed IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE. "Here we are." He walked right up to the cashier and said "Two protein shakes, please." He flashed his Avengers card, causing the girl behind the cash register to stand up in a rush to fill his order.
"Being a superhero certainly has its benefits." Pietro remarked, taking a seat by the window.
"That it does." Sam laughed as their shakes were brought out. "I figured you could use a little normalcy before this whole government fiasco starts."
"I don't even want to think about it." The whole thing just seemed silly to him-if it weren't for the Avengers, everyone on the entire planet would be dead-shouldn't that be enough to absolve them of all charges?
"Maybe things will work themselves out." Sam tried unconvincingly.
"Yeah. Maybe." They talked for another half hour about more innocent topics until Sam checked his phone and decided they really should try to get going if they wanted to be back before dark.
"You know what, Maximoff?" he asked as they jogged back through the gathering darkness. "You're really not so bad."
Pietro grinned. "Neither are you, Wilson. And you know what? You were right. That really was the best protein shake known to man."
~V102~
"Senator Raymond? There's someone here to see you. He says he has an appointment?"
Theodore Raymond-known as Theo to his close friends and political constituents-looked up from a stack of paperwork on his desk curiously. He didn't remember any appointments scheduled for the afternoon hours. "Who is he?"
"That scientist from the European company." his newest personal assistant, Fritz, said as he scrolled through tabs on his iPad. "He says he's quite excited to see you."
Suddenly the pieces clicked. "Oh yes. Send him right in." Fritz nodded and left.
He was back in about ten minutes with a man that had close cropped brown hair and eyes that were practically sparkling with excitement as he shook Theo's hand. "Senator Raymond, it's so nice to finally meet you! I've heard so many good things, about how you're never intimidated by the…uglier side of Capitol Hill." He suddenly paused and sighed loudly. "My apologies. I've almost forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Nicholas Fisk."
"Nice to meet you as well." Theo pulled out the papers Fritz had dropped off that morning. "Impressive resume you have here, Mr. Fisk. It looks like you've worked all over the place."
"Indeed I have." he replied proudly. "Though I consider it a special honor to be able to work for a member of the United States government. I feel I can gain experience here that I could find nowhere else in the world."
"That's true, at least."
"I was hoping I could bounce a couple of ideas off you, if that's all right."
Theo glanced at the clock above his desk. "I suppose we have time."
Nicholas smiled brightly as he unrolled a long blueprint that seemed to show some kind of building. "Good. In that case, let's get started."
~V102~
Ten minutes later, a single man walked out of the Senator's office. Nicholas faced forward, eyes on the ground, as his brown business shoes clicked across the Capitol building's tough marble floors. No one in any of the tourist groups that crowded the lobby gave him so much as a backward glance; he gave a nod to the security guards on duty and left without a fanfare.
Once outside, he walked a ways down the National Mall before he took a seat on a small bench in front of the Air and Space Museum. Watching groups of children come in and out, he pulled out his phone and dialed. "Mr. Zemo?" he said, keeping his voice low. "The plan was successful. I'm in."
I don't know how Marvel is going to introduce Baron Zemo in Civil War, but I'm going to imagine that he'll be acting behind the scenes, pulling the strings, things like that. My knowledge of Marvel comics is very limited and I don't know anything about his comic book version so if anything about him in this chapter or chapters to come is inaccurate, that's the reason why.
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