Chapter 11
8 hours later, S.H.I.E.L.D. Central, Helipad; New York, New York
"-completely beside the point!" Agent Mason said as she jumped down onto the tarmac. She didn't wait for her two companions to exit, both with decidedly less grace, before walking quickly to the stairwell door. She waved briefly to the recessed camera and slid a small card across a scanner. The door popped open and she was inside, deftly holding it with her foot before Tony and Thor had made it ten steps.
"What's the rush?" Tony asked, smirking.
"Security," Agent Mason answered lightly, already pressing her hand on a scanner. "You don't open the first door within 90 seconds and...well it's not pleasant." A second door slid open on their right. "This way, gentlemen...and Stark."
Tony didn't have time to answer, as she was already halfway down the brightly-lit corridor. At the end of the hallway, a burly man stood next to the only door. "Mason," he said, nodding politely. "Fury wants you and the rogues down in briefing."
"Not wasting much time is he?" Agent Mason asked rhetorically.
"I'm going to pretend I don't know what you're talking about, but if I did the answer would be yes." He glanced at Thor and Tony, "I'd suggest you hurry, he had that look on his face. You know the one."
She nodded and continued through the now open door. Tony and Thor followed her into a less Spartan room featuring an elevator. Agent Mason looked completely comfortable not talking, apparently lost in thought. Thor, however, was curious.
"The Director has a special look?"
"Hmm? Well he does have an eye patch, so all of his looks could be considered 'special'. The one Jennings was talking about though is usually reserved for when Fury's- well furious at someone. Seeing as that 'someone' is me more often than not, it will be refreshing to see it used on someone else." She seemed entirely too pleased with that.
...
"Ah, Agent Mason so nice of you to join us." Fury looked up from his seat at the ridiculously long table that occupied the briefing room. Seated on the closest end were Natasha, Clint, Bruce, and Steve.
"Director," she nodded her head dutifully, "I'm afraid I can't take the blame for being late. Lose something lately?" She gestured to the two men that had followed her in. Fury shot her a look (unbeknownst to him it was number 17 on the list that several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had spread through the ranks).
"Gentlemen, I'm afraid the usual protocols will have to be delayed for the moment. You have a mission."
...
"So let me get this straight, Fury wants us to just waltz in there?" Tony sounded rather irritated; although, that could have been because he had drawn the short straw and ended up between Steve and Thor in the back of the van. They were in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nondescript minivans, well- only the outside could be classified as a minivan. They were probably quite the sight if anyone had managed to see through the heavily-tinted windows. A god in battle armor with a giant hammer; a rumpled-looking billionaire with a metal suitcase; a man wearing a red, white, and blue spandex suit; what appeared to be a doctor or professor; a petite woman with unruly blonde curls; and a couple of master assassins thrown in for good measure. Definitely no soccer moms here.
No one bothered to respond, he had been making comments along those lines for the past ten minutes. Instead, Thor shifted uncomfortably against his seatbelt- pushing Tony into Steve and forcing Steve against the window. Unfortunately, when the car company said it was a seven passenger, they didn't take Asgardians into their count.
Clint and Natasha were in the front seats having a quiet conversation, with an occasional comment from Agent Mason. Mostly though, she concentrated on the tablet in front of her.
"Here are the clearest schematics we can find on their base." She swiped at her screen a few times and the windows of the van were filled with various maps and architect's notes.
"Is that normal?" Steve leaned forward and whispered to Bruce.
"Not overly." He whispered back.
Agent Mason continued as if they hadn't spoken, "Study them and memorize the plan. You have twenty minutes."
...
20 Minutes Later, Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Outside Chitauri Base
"An abandoned warehouse? That's so cliché." Tony's voice was slightly distorted by his suit helmet.
"You'll have your chance to tell the Chitauri face-to-face in a few minutes if you follow the plan, Stark." Natasha said without looking at him.
"Oh yes, the plan- we all must stick to the plan now mustn't we?"
"It's better than just waltzing in there, Stark." Clint didn't bother to look at him either.
"I just don't appreciate being the cannon fodder, Legolas."
"Come off it Stark," Agent Mason piped up from behind them, "You're going in with everyone else in a metal suit."
"I don't see you and Nat rushing in there with us." Tony said, giving both girls a small glare.
"Wow, your chivalry is astounding. But no, we're going in a little after. You need to clear the way to the computers." Natasha didn't elaborate; everyone knew all of the parts- it just seemed to calm Tony to bicker. She checked her watch, "And I believe it's time, first group ready?"
...
The two lone women in the group were crouched outside the warehouse, well concealed from any prying eyes. Several minutes had passed and there hadn't been any signal or indication that the guys had found any Chitauri.
"I'm going in." Natasha stood up and readied her gun.
"Correction," Agent Mason stood up too, "we are going in."
"And have Fury kill me? No thanks. You are staying here."
"I am fully capable-"
"This is your first field mission."
"Technically, it's only the first one that is guaranteed to turn to violence. And even then, we aren't even sure what the situation is in there." Natasha opened her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by a loud explosion. As the two women turned towards the warehouse another fireball erupted out of the second story windows, closely followed by a flying (or more accurately, falling) Chitauri. It landed a few feet in front of them, and lay not moving.
"You think that's the signal?" Agent Mason asked, amused. Without another word, they ran the few hundred feet to the entrance of the warehouse. Natasha pressed her ear to the door and listened intently for a moment.
"All clear, you ready?'
"As much as I can be," Agent Mason said, and watched as she opened the thick steel door. She followed her consort closely into the building, silently pulling her gun out as she did. A few feet inside there was a wall running into the darkness on either side of them.
"This wasn't on the plans, was it Kat?"
"No," Agent Mason took a few steps to her side trying to peer into the gloom. "labyrinthus," she breathed, "It's a maze."
"Any idea which way to go?" Agent Romanoff was shifting her aim in smooth arcs, covering all of their sides. Another loud explosion can from their right.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that way."
...
Several minutes and a lot of turns later, the explosions were noticeably louder. A few of the more powerful ones even shook the building around them. Occasionally there would be the echoing sound of muffled footsteps, but so far they had not encountered any living being- friendly or unfriendly.
That was until the ground exploded a few feet in front of them. Both would have been seriously injured if they had not been trained for situations like this. It was actually one of the more overused scenarios in the recruit simulations, the agent in charge of basic training had had a flair for the dramatic. Fortunately, he had held on to his job long enough to train the two before there had been a 'slight' accident during a training exercise.
Agent Mason rolled over onto her back with a low groan. She lay still, talking inventory of her injuries. Moving her head to the side, she saw Natasha trying to pull herself up along the opposite wall; muttering a wide variety of Russian obscenities.
Agent Mason moved her head back into a comfortable position and shut her eyes. There was a soft clunk a few feet out of her line of sight, instead of acknowledging the source of the noise- she simply shut her eyes tighter.
The noise persisted, echoing faintly off the metal walls.
"And here I thought we were starting to get along," her voice seemed to help wake Natasha up, she glanced over at her prone comrade and rolled her eyes at what she saw.
"Sorry about that, Princess. Apparently I'm too self-obsessed to play well with others, but you're getting to the point where I don't outright hate you anymore." He reached down to help the small agent to her feet.
"Just at the point of sending explosives at me," Agent Mason ignored the proffered hand and pushed herself up into a standing position.
"The whole place is lined, I can barely get heat signatures from 20 feet away. No outside signals, there were actually quite a few Chitauri here, I just assumed you were reinforcements."
"Reinforcements for you." Natasha said, casually brushing her suit off. "Where is everyone?"
"The main room is just ahead, there were only a few Chitauri left the last I saw. Capsicle sent me to make sure no one would sneak up behind them, I think he was just getting annoyed at how many more I could take out than him."
"Lead the way, Stark." Tony shrugged his mechanical shoulders and started walking forward.
After many turns Tony made seemingly at random, Natasha spoke up, "Do you know where you're going, Stark?" The explosions had all but disappeared, but the odd one here and there was behind them more often than not.
"Of course," he tapped the side of his helmet, "I left a path of-"
"Sodium triphosphate." Agent Mason and Tony said at the same time. He gave her a look and she shrugged.
"It's completely safe," he said, turning back to Natasha, "and just so happens to be traceable with the right technology." He tapped the side of his head.
"Just think technologically advanced Hansel and Gretel." Agent Mason tried to keep the laughter out of her voice, but didn't quite succeed. Natasha smirked at Tony.
"It's a bit more complicated than that, but it's close enough. If my calculations are correct, which they are, the last stretch is...here." He looked triumphantly at the two women. "There's a large room just around the corner here," he moved towards the bend, but was stopped by Natasha's arm.
"Ladies first," she said, lithely moving around him and into the unknown. With a shrug to Tony, Agent Mason followed.
...
The room, if you could even call it that, looked like a wider version of the maze- with the exception of a few hundred Chituari and a few superheroes. Agent Mason allowed herself a moment to orient herself. The Chitauri were dropping like flies, but their number wasn't anything to laugh at. She mentally sighed and turned towards the nearest alien. It's face was grotesque, but the scariest thing was it's weapon.
She stilled herself completely, waitng...waiting... as it fired a jet of blue light, Agent Mason threw herself out of the way, using her momentum (and maybe a pressure point or two) to bring down her assailant.
"There goes another set of orders out the window." She muttered. There was a swishing sound behind her, and she ducked out of the way just in time to see a large piece of metal and wood take out a few Chitauri to her right. Giving Thor a small nod of thanks, she concentrated on a group to her left.
A few times she saw a blur of red and blue, or a flash of an arrow. But her main focus was on the extraterrestrials. Suddenly, above the din, she heard Tony yell. The exact words were lost on her, but she understood enough to get down.
There was a rather anti-climatic whirring, and all of the remaining Chitauri dropped.
"Maybe you should lead with that one next time?" Clint asked, inspecting his bow calmly. The rest of the small band of heroes were looking around, all seemingly without serious injury.
"It's a prototype, besides- what's the fun in that?" He took his time inspecting his work before nodding with a self-satisfied grin on his face.
...
"It's...a ball?" Steve asked, "that's what they were protecting?" They were in a small room off of the larger one that had just been in. The word room however was a was a bit of an understatement, Tony had only been able to get through after a few minutes with lasers.
Natasha picked up the small metalloid object with her gloves, holding it in the light.
"At least it's not another bloody cube, what is it with trying to take over the world with a cube?" Agent Mason said, "It's about bloody time we got a sphere."
