Question Time!

PrincessNaina - You'll find out wether they passed soon enough. Not particularly plot relevant and I had completely forgotten about it but the scene is there now and you're welcome.

CHAPTER 14: SHIFT

"What's this week's agenda?"

"Well, for Rhodey's inaugural mission, methinks we need to do something big but simple, yeah?" Tony explained, to the Avengers' agreement. "So: an AIM storage facility in New Jersey," Tony pulled up a holographic file. "It's been holding illegally made and potentially dangerous weapons. Natasha thinks it's where they store weapons before shipping them out to suppliers abroad. It's fairly close to a port and an airport, so a pretty decent spot."

Natasha sighed dramatically. "It's a shame we have to destroy it."

The other teens erupted into giggles, and they ironed out most of the details before turning on some crappy television to watch.

Tony got bored half an hour in, fingers twitching to make something, so he dragged Rhodey to his workshop to quickly fit Rhodey into his spare suit. It was gunmetal grey, with titanium and aluminium plates scattered in parts, but unlike Tony's suit the arc reactor was a deep, burning red, because Tony thought it would look cool with the other colours.

"Remember -" Tony tightened a screw in the leg plate "- this is only temporary, before we get you something better, okay?"

Rhodey nodded an affirmative, and before long had been kitted out in the suit. He stood in awe, gazing at the plates that shifted over his skin, and went for a test flight. He returned an hour later in a blissful state of wonder, and thanked Tony profusely before falling into the den, asleep before his head hit the pillows.

"Rhodey, if we get arrested, it's your fault."

The occupants of the van burst into laughter as they landed just outside the building, setting off about twenty security alarms that they didn't care about. Six security guards came rushing out of the building, and three went down with arrows in the knees before a second had passed. One went down with a shield to the chest, and the last two got Natasha's bullets to the shoulders. Matt sauntered over and punched them all unconscious, just to be sure, still chuckling about the joke.

The Avengers swept into the building, quickly taking out all the guards and knocking the other AIM lackeys unconscious. Natasha had just located the room containing the computer terminals and was hacking in when Matt's head shot up.

"Guys, I think I hear something outside." Matt muttered over the comms.

"Right," Tony acknowledged, "I'll do a quick perimeter check: make sure there are no reinforcements coming in."

He quickly located a window and flew out, flying around the perimeter of the building to search for more enemies. Instead, he found three black cars parked in a row. They had a logo on the side that Tony didn't immediately recognise, even though it seemed familiar. It wasn't AIM's logo, so he landed in front of the vans, carefully holding up his blasters.

The doors of the cars opened in unison, identical men and women in black suits stepping out and walking forwards.

"Wait, who the fuck are you guys?" Tony said, blasters raised and ready to fire.

The man in the centre of the group spoke up, "I'm Agent Coulson from SHIELD. We'd like to form an alliance with you and the other Avengers."

Tony went silent. "Guys," he muttered over the comms, "You might wanna get out here. Real fast."

Within a minute, all the Avengers were standing outside the building, staring at the agents. When Steve came out, he froze for a split second before tensing slightly, shoulders coiled and the grip on his shield tight.

"Agent, tell these guys what you just told me."

"I'm from SHIELD. We'd like to form an alliance with the Avengers."

The group looked at each other, and through some minute shrugs and signing behind their backs, they all agreed that it was a good plan to go with what SHIELD was offering.

"We'd like to take you up on your offer," Steve announced, stepping forward, "But know that if you do anything shifty we'll bolt. Got it?"

"Loud and clear, Captain." Agent Coulson said. He stood still after that, unmoving.

"Uh, Agent Agent?" Tony said. "You wanted to do something? Take us anywhere?"

The hum of an engine joined the background noise, and a few seconds later a plane was landing right behind the parked cars. The wind from the landing ruffled Agent Coulson's suit, but he simply smiled slightly.

"This is our ride."

Tony stared in awe at the plane, instantly trying to improve the design. Steve looked at the other Avengers, signed "bomb" and ran off into the compound.

"If you'll give us a minute to set up our explosives," Natasha said politely, "Then we can leave and blow this place sky high."

They waited until Steve ran back out, then turned to the plane.

"The Quinjet."

He lead them over to the aircraft, and after a brief pause to let Bruce park the van they were flying over a remote field in New Jersey. Steve had clicked the detonator as they flew off, and the faint rumble of the explosion behind them meant another job well done. They settled down into the flight, chatting quietly amongst themselves.

"Where are we going?" Steve asked Coulson.

"A SHIELD facility near here. It's one of our main bases. We call it the Hub."

Steve nodded, and settled back into his seat. He pulled off his helmet and goggles, and muttered against the others protests that SHIELD already knew who he was. He rubbed his face, then settled in for the ride. There was going to be a stressful chat at the other end.

"Please, remove all of your weapons and place them in the trays provided."

The Avengers grumpily stepped up to the security gate, one by one, and removed the weapons they had on their persons. Tony got waived through, since he was wearing the armour and he didn't want to reveal his identity. Bruce gave in his stun watch, stun gun and other non-lethal weapons. Steve kept his shield, but pulled three knives from his boots and a whole range of other devices from holsters and his belt. Matt handed over his smoke bombs and billy clubs. Clint reluctantly handed over his bow and quiver, and then it was Natasha's turn.

She sighed grumpily, and began to pull of all the visible knives and guns on her person (a pretty large number to begin with) followed by the knives hidden in her boots, the long needle hidden in a special pocket on her leg, her stun-gloves, her stun-watch, the knives up her sleeves and the three daggers at the small of her back.

The SHIELD agents looked on in horror and awe at the steadily growing pile of weapons on the table.

Clint frowned suspiciously at her. "He said all of them, Nat."

She scowled at him, then began emptying her utility belt. There were five more knives, a swiss army knife, another multitool, a small biro pen and lots of explosives. She pulled the cigarette box from her utility pocket and placed it in the box too, much to the concerned looks of the SHIELD agents.

(Off the the side, Fury leant towards Steve and asked, "Do I want to know?"

"No," Steve replied curtly.)

Clint gave Natasha a stern look, and she removed one last tiny pistol.

After Natasha had begrudgingly removed (almost) every weapon on her person, 53 in total, they moved on. They were given lanyards (or in Steve and Bruce's case, returned), and Coulson escorted them to a conference room. There was a large, elliptical table in the centre of the room, a screen at one end and no windows, only bright fluorescent lights overhead. In one corner sat a decorative but lonely plant pot, that had probably been put there by an optimistic agent who believed that it would liven up the dull grey room a little. It didn't. The plant had half-wilted from the sheer dullness of its surroundings.

The Avengers seated themselves around the table, had barely a minute to settle themselves before the door slid open and a very angry and angsty pirate walked in. He wore all black, had a scowl on his face that looked so ingrained as to be permanent, and wore a black eye patch over his left eye. He had really gone overboard on the black leather.

"Avengers," he announced, as if they didn't know who they were, "You have been causing me a fuck ton of trouble."

"And who are you?" Daredevil asked, polite given the circumstances.

The man's scowl got deeper. "I'm Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. And I'm not very happy with you."

"No shit," Natasha snorted under her breath.

"What the hell are you idiots thinking? Rogers and Banner, I expected more of you, and the rest of you? What the fuck? What the actual fuck?"

"We just want to help people," Matt objected.

"By doing this? Vigilante justice has consequences, you dipshits."

"You think we didn't know that?" Natasha burst out, "The reason we're doing this is because the alternative was worse."

Fury raised a sceptical eyebrow. "How much worse?"

"Being forced to kill people. Being abused. Having attacks on your life, in Iron Man's case. Daredevil was already in the business. Cap has fucking PTSD, for pity's sake." Clint nearly stood in his anger. "You have no idea how bad it was for them."

Fury sighed as he dropped down into the nearest chair. "Well then, perhaps we can change topic to the reason why I asked you here: an alliance."

"What are the terms?"

"You'll work for SHIELD. Everything you do will be under SHIELD jurisdiction, and we'll share information. Every mission you go on will have a proper debrief and report, and everything will have to be cleared by me before you do it."

Steve leant forward. "If you want us to join you, we'll have some conditions."

After some hard negotiating, they came to an agreement. The Avengers would become part of SHIELD, having the equivalent of Level 8 clearance - but only within Avengers operations. They would have to call in operations within an hour of them happening, or before if possible. They weren't allowed to do anything stupid, which was fair, and they had to do proper reports of their missions. They also got to share information with SHIELD, which was a bonus.

They sorted out some paperwork, which sucked, then piled back into a Quinjet and headed for the field in which they had left their van. There was an awkward silence, none of them quite wanting to discuss what they had just signed up for, but as they walked back into the mansion Tony decided to break the ice.

"So, does getting found by SHIELD count as arrested? Because it's totally Rhodey's fault."

Their laughter followed them into the den, where they fell asleep in a pile of tangled, teenage limbs.

AN: So... SHIELD. What did you think? Thank you all so much for your reviews, favourites and follows! It always makes my day when someone likes my fic.

~ waitisthataship