Chapter Twelve: Tilting the Pendulum
That's right, chapter twelve, shit's about to get real, things should really get interesting now. Shay is so awesome isn't she, I have her do some really unique and bad ass things but this chapter will be great. As always follow this story and favorite and don't forget to leave me comments down below, I enjoy reading them!
"Shaylene," he looks over me once, not a single emotion displaying on his face before flickering his eyes to the sleek black pistol aimed at his head and then meeting my gaze. "It's been a long time, ten years I believe."
"Lets skip the formalities shall we?" I narrow my eyes. "You know why I'm here."
"Do I? You shot Agent Hill, she's in the hospital with her leg in a cast, I assume you're the one who pulled the trigger seeing as how Nathan was much closer to Maria than you were."
He stalling, but something about that statement doesn't seem right and I can't quite put my finger on it.
A false smile falls across my lips. "I was never close with anyone, you should know that Nick Fury, just like you should learn to leave well enough alone, I came here— to this godforsaken tower—for one reason, and that reason is you, you've forced my hand Fury."
He says nothing, just stares at me, his eyes cold, almost detached from any type of emotions but in his eyes I can see him formulating a plan, a strategy to get out of here and to eliminate me at the same time.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I say, noticing his hand reaching towards the gun holstered in the pocket of his black leather trench coat. "I'm not alone here, you're surrounded and if you make one wrong move, I can put you down like a rabid animal."
"What do you want then?"
Even though he asked the question I can tell he doesn't care one way or the other if I tell him or not, this is going to be much harder than I originally thought and that's bad. While the plan we have is nearly flawless there are still a few wild cards and independent variables that could very easily blow this plan up and sink it like the Titanic.
The Avengers upstairs are those variables. Sure they're partying right now but what happens when they're finished and notice that they cannot find Nick Fury anywhere so they come searching. If we stay here too long that will inhibit our escape plan and one wrong more will bring us out into the limelight for all the Avengers to see.
"Peace, I want you and your team to leave the six of us alone in peace, we've done nothing that makes us a risk to national security and we deserve to be free and not live like we're fugitives on the run from the government."
Nick Fury narrows his eyes at me like what I'm asking is some preposterous request that he couldn't possibly oblige to. It's the only thing I want, things are bad enough as it is, what with HYDRA after us, that last thing I need, or want, to worry about is Nick Fury and his government crew trying to capture us.
"And what will you do if I say no?"
My smirk deepens. "If you don't, I'll tell them, everything."
"Everything? Like what, how to save money on make-up?"
I shake my head, still keeping my eyes on him. "Unfortunately for you, no. Everything as in Project: T.A.H.I.T.I. and about how you know who is still you know what and how said you know who came to still be."
"If you do, you'll have to tell them about you, besides they'll never believe you."
"All I have to do is prove it and what with Tara's expertise, it shouldn't be too hard. Do you really want to test this theory Nick Fury, we were able to break into the most secure building in the world completely undetected, you have no idea how far I'm willing to go to protect my crew from people like you and keep the Avengers from them, they'll be crushed if things don't go like they might want, I'm trying to save us all from that."
"Is that why you're wearing that green hoodie with that hood up? To hide your face? No matter what, as long as you and your team is still alive there's is always and chance they will find out about you. I said this once and I'll say it again, you should never have been woken up and that's my mistake as well as creating the others."
"You're right, you shouldn't have woken me up. You should have eliminated me like S.H.I.E.L.D. had originally planned to and you shouldn't have messed around with science but you did and now you have to face the truth. We are more than happy to live alone in our desolate silence. If you agree to leave us alone we vanish and the Avengers will never have to know."
"The Avengers won't have to know what?" a new, male, voice chimes in and the blood in my veins freeze like ice is running through me instead.
I know that voice...
My foot juts out knocking Nick Fury to the ground.
Spinning I kick the gun from his pocket sending it sprawling across the white tile floor as I fire the gun in the direction of the voice.
Just when Steve Rogers come back out from behind the bookshelf when I stop firing I raise the gun to the ceiling and fire at each one of the four light fixtures over head, each bulb shattering into a million pieces and enclosing us all in darkness. Darting to the right I follow the plan we made for escape and I hope the rest of my crew got the memo when the lights went out.
I reach the metal staircase, I don't bother with climbing but instead pull myself up after each and every railing I find until I see the faint light from where the open grate is. Hauling myself over the railing I run as silently as possible and start to pull myself up through the grate when I feel three sets of hands pulling me up through the floor.
Whenever I enter the light from the room above the basement I adjust my eyes in time to see Tara, Tarben, and Nathan are the one that helped me up while Ciara has her bow and arrow raised as the guard. Tarben and I move the metal grate back in place and start toward the control room where Bryan is, we need to get him out before we worry about Steve Rogers and the rest of the Avengers.
"Holy shit," Tara gasps after a minute. "Was that really—?"
"Yes..." I say, my voice completely void of any sort of emotion; I can't even think about it myself much less confide to my crew, I'm not ecstatic about my encounter with him, in fact, I wish it didn't happen but at least he couldn't really see my face.
"Best day ever...!" Tara whispers, excitement still evident as she grins like a loony.
"No, this is very bad," Nathan growls, glaring daggers at her. "If he saw us, he'll definitely tell the rest of his... friends? I don't know but either way they'll know about up and that's dangerous."
"It's not like they'll kill us."
I look over at her. "How do you know? Did you read those files leaked from S.H.I.E.L.D. and what about whatever lie Fury might concoct to get them on his side, who do you think they're going to believe?"
Nate picks up my sentence. "The man who brought them together to save the world," he looks at me and then back to Tara. "Or the girl that held Nick Fury at gunpoint, the choice is hilariously obvious."
We round the corner and enter the control room but the second that we do, alarms goes off. Red lights flash on and off and a loud buzzer type beeping rings throughout the hallways, they know.
"Damn..." Ciara growls through gritted teeth, re-notching her arrow back in place. "We need to get out of here, now, otherwise we'll be trapped with the worlds mightiest heroes and we'll loose, big time."
Wait a minute, that might just work...
"Maybe we don't need to fight them, we need to outsmart them to escape, their first idea would be that I would go for the doors or windows because duh! They'll think I'm stupid."
"What are you suggesting then?" Bryan asks, scooting closer to us to hear the conversation in full detail.
I grin. "Lets go up and out, rooftop escape, Tara's whips will make a mean swing and I'm sure we might be able to find rope or some other type of asset capable of helping us make a getaway."
Tarben rolls his eyes before commenting. "How are we supposed to get to the roof when we're in the tower of super people, they have us outmatched and outgunned on every front, there's no way for us to win."
"Damn Malibu Ken, always so negative," Tara says, rolling her eyes.
I cut in. "What we have to do is be on much higher alert and strike first, we cannot afford to make a mistake because if we do, you're right Tarben, we'll loose any sort of battle with them but we can outsmart them on every possible front, we have an advantage. We've got the element of surprise because they think there's only me here, as far as we know, and they don't know what we can do."
"You're worthless... A waste of space!" The words ring through my head.
A constant ever present memory bent of haunting me at the worst possible moments but I can't give into the desire to dwell upon the words that internally tear me to shreds, now isn't the time. I have to grin and bare it until we escape and I can hide away by myself and lick my wounds in privacy like lions in the wild do but for now a facade is my only defense again the memories that haunt me.
Shaking my head I rise to my feet after our three or four minute meeting. "Tara, pull up the map of Avengers Tower and see if you can get an exact location on each one of the Avengers. This will work much easier if we know exactly where they are and what they're planning."
Tarben leans against the closed door of the control room in case any of the Avengers come by and attempt to open it, a security protocol type thing that will let us know when they're at our location. Tara taps at her computer keys as black background and blue colored lines of the tower appear on the small screen. Tara's uses JARVIS for her own gain and manages to get exact locations, identifying them with specific dots colored accordingly.
Tony Stark is red, Steve Rogers is blue, Clint Barton is purple, Bruce Banner is green, Thor is yellow, and Natasha Romanoff is white.
"Pull up the video feed from the main room," I tell Tara, eyes fixed solely on the computer as Tara does what I asked. It takes her a few more seconds than one would expect but she brings it up nonetheless.
"We need to split up, three teams of two and search for this intruder," Steve Rogers voice rings through the speakers, using his authoritative Captain America voice, ugh! I roll my eyes in annoyance.
"Barton and I can go through the bottom half of the tower," Natasha Romanoff chimes in, her voice obedient and emotionless. She gives nothing away, the way a spy and assassin should be. Those two won't cause to many issue if they're going to be on the bottom floor.
"Thor and I can been in the top of the building so at least I'll be closer to getting out of the tower, just in case," Bruce speaks up, obviously concerned for the safety of his friend in the tower not that I blame him. The Hulk is dangerous but Bryan has more control of his than Bruce Banner does so we don't have nearly as much to worry about as they do.
That only leaves Tony Stark and Steve Rogers on the middle floors, where the six of us are, irony if anything.
"So," Tarben speaks. "We're stuck on this floor with a genius inventor and a super soldier, fantastic, can I kill myself now or...?"
Glaring daggers at him, I spin around and face him. "Quit complaining already, if you want to die here then die, I'm done. Either stop being so negative or I may just leave you, got it!?"
"Y-yeah... I-I..."
He seems at a loose for words and I pay him no mind. "Let's get ready, Tara pack up your stuff and collect and steal and data from here you want but make sure it can't be traced and make it snappy we need to get a move on."
"Alright," is Tara's response but I don't register it.
All I can think about is getting far, far away from this tower and as far away from the Avengers as I can possibly get.
