hi guys! as always, enjoy this slightly longer chapter :)

TWENTY SIX

Gemma was excited to be coming on the first HYDRA safe-house bust. She couldn't think of anything better than helping the downfall of one of their homes.

It was only the core six going, Bruce as a back-up just in case. They all knew he was happier in the lab, away from the action, but they couldn't spare Sam from whatever task Steve had given him and Maria wasn't really cleared for this kind of action. Gemma was just about allowed to go; both Steve and Natasha were not happy about it and Gemma was pretty sure they were going to stop her going on the next one, but she didn't care. She was happy to be able to go on one.

It was out of the country; settled in the depths of the Amazon, masses of tropical rainforest hiding it from view. It was Fury who tipped them off about one in that corner of the world, but it was Natasha who'd found the co-ordinates and confirmed them. The plan was for Gemma, Natasha and Clint to fight off the HYDRA agents, whilst Thor would look for his brother's sceptre, and then Steve and Tony would look for anything else beneficial. The plan was not to take prisoners and not to get killed in response.
"Anything could be a clue for other bases," Steve reminded the group on the Quinjet there. It would be a little while before they got there.
"And anyone could kill," Tony finished, parroting Steve's repeated words. "You've been saying. We know, Capsicle. Let me nap."
"Only you would nap before a mission, Tony," Bruce grumbled, casting the billionaire a glance as he lay down.
"Better than miss five-cups-of-coffee," Tony said, nudging his head at Gemma.
"Actually, this makes seven," Gemma muttered, taking another sip of her beloved drink.
"Wait, seven?" Steve echoed, coming to sit next to the agent. "I think that's enough." He took the cup from her hands, causing Gemma to whine slightly.
"That's not the worst I've done," she said.
"It's not good for ya, doll." Gemma smiled faintly at the nickname, although it faded when she caught Natasha's glance.
"I had a roommate in college who used to try to hide to coffee from me after one cup," Gemma told him, grinning. "She would tell me I was going to fry my ovaries. I would tell her that at least I wasn't smoking."
"Question!" Natasha exclaimed from the front. "Did you ever smoke?"
"Once," Gemma told her, "but it turns out I'm allergic to tobacco." Natasha turned again to give Gemma a shit-eating grin. "And you knew that because you've read my damn medical report."
"Can drinking too much coffee fry your ovaries?" Clint asked, a frown in his voice.
"I think she only said that to scare me. She also said my drinking habits would do the same, but she didn't approve of a lot of my lifestyle to be fair," Gemma added. "I think she thought I was cursed."
"Just once," Natasha begged, "I'd love to meet college Gemma. Please."
"Maybe I would've gotten along with college Gemma," Tony muttered. Gemma rolled her eyes.
"I thought you wanted to nap," Steve said defensively. Gemma placed a hand on his arm, shaking her head.
"Which is why I've changed for good," Gemma responded. "Now I tell myself to not do anything college Gemma would do."
"We're half an hour out," Clint announced, changing the course of the conversation. "Start prepping now."

"Hey." Steve caught Gemma's arm as the others filed off the Quinjet, keeping her. "Let's talk for a moment."
"Is this a 'don't die' talk?" Gemma inquired, narrowing her eyes. "Like, it could be summarised into a 'don't die'?" Steve chuckled.
"No," he responded. Gemma raised her eyebrows. Steve folded. "Not completely. I just-" Steve sighed. "Okay. Yes, don't die. Listen to Natasha and Clint. Please."
"I'll be okay," she told him gently, stroking his cheek. "I have been training with one of the best assassins in the world."
"The last time we did something, you got shot," Steve muttered.
"And what happened to you?" she retaliated, smiling sweetly. "It's not healthy to worry so much. It'll fry your ovaries." Gemma snorted at her own joke, the intimate moment over.
"You've spent too much time with Natasha," he responded, although he couldn't hide the small smile from her. "Let's go."

The quinjet hadn't been hidden too far from the base; allowing Tony and Thor to fly, Steve to use his motorbike (he'd yet to successfully convince Gemma to ride it) and Gemma, Natasha and Clint rode in an abandoned SUV. They were hoping the element of surprise would drop the base's guard; allowing them a small period for largescale destruction.
"This is what you call bonding!" Natasha exclaimed, shooting down at some of the guard towers. Gemma followed suit, allowing Clint to stay focused on the driving.
"Paddleboarding would've been safer," Gemma called back, ditching her gun in the back to release both her whips, leaping out of the moving truck first. The rest of the team was long gone; leaving a small surge of HYDRA agents outside, deep in the forest for Gemma, Natasha and Clint to deal with.
"I'm scared of snakes," Gemma added, giving a small smile to Natasha.
"No! Tell me this information when I can relish it." Gemma started to move the whip, cracking sounds mixing with the grunts and bangs of the fight. Gemma loved that her whip was efficient; the material able to disarm and takedown at the same time. Stomach ache present, Gemma fought through as many as she could. Natasha was out of view but not earshot, whilst Clint was perching in a nearby tree, firing arrows where he could. Some curse words escaped Gemma as she narrowly avoided a round of bullets, then countered by sending her whip in the general direction.
"How you boys doing?" Natasha asked through comms, voice only lightly strained with the effort of fighting.
"No sign of the Tesseract," Thor responded. "I'm coming back to aid you."
"Like we can't handle ourselves?" Clint responded, breathless.
"I think you answered your own question," Tony muttered through comms. "JARVIS and I are still going. This is a smaller base, but- Ah, shit." Gemma heard a sigh that caused her to share a look with Clint. The outside guard was almost done.
"Stark, is everything okay?" Gemma heard Steve ask.
"Thor, head to Stark," Gemma said. "Like the old man said. We can handle ourselves."
"You will pay for that in training," Clint mumbled. "I'm not that old." Gemma only threw him a small smile as she yet again cracked her whip, causing another fallen HYDRA soldier.
"Stark, what did you find?" Gemma heard Steve again.
"No worries," Thor answered, "I have- Oh. I see."
"Do we need to come in?" Natasha clarified. "We'll start making our way in."
"I'm there," Steve responded. "Wait for th- Oh."
"What?" Gemma, Natasha and Clint answered this time, all at once, exasperated. Gemma and Clint shared another look as a final surge of HYDRA came at them, much smaller than the others.
"Someone tell me what the hell is going on there, please," Gemma demanded, annoyed. "Or do I have to come to find out myself?" She watched as Natasha flung a soldier her way, allowing Gemma to snap her whip at him, as Clint hopped out the tree.
"Nope!" Tony snapped, seemingly listening again. "It seems that, erm-"
"Dead bodies," Thor interrupted, "lots." That caused the trio to all stop where they were. Gemma could even hear Bruce's sigh through the comms.
"What do you mean by that, Thor?" Gemma asked, taking a deep breath. There was silence. "Give me an answer, damn it!"
"A small pile," Steve answered. His tone was unreadable. "It seems HYDRA was testing something."
"You think they had the Tesseract?" Natasha asked.
"Mh. 'Had' being key," Tony responded. This wasn't expected.
"Is there anyone to capture and interrogate?" Gemma inquired, trying to figure what to do.
"The bodies-" Steve started to say, but Gemma cut across.
"Is there anyone to interrogate?" she repeated, gritting her teeth. She didn't wait for an answer. "Find me someone. We're heading your way. Bruce, get Maria on call. We'll see what she says about the bodies." He muttered a response back. Gemma assumed he was complying. She turned to the two assassins with her.
"We'll get back in that SUV, head their way," she said. They nodded in agreement.
"They at least had the Tesseract here," Natasha said, climbing up into the front. "Maybe someone knows where it's gone."
"Let's hope so," Clint muttered, setting the car alight again. They manoeuvred through the masses of the rainforest, swerving to avoid many trees.
"How did they build a base here?" Gemma asked. "That would be a lot of deforestation."
"I have a feeling HYDRA doesn't care about the environment!" Natasha shouted back.
"It's a rainforest!" Gemma exclaimed. "The impact on the local ecosystem would be huge!"
"We can worry about the environment later," Clint said. "We got bigger problems." Natasha leaned back to whisper to Gemma.
"I'm gonna remember to tell Sam." Gemma swatted her as the car came to a stop.

The base was smaller than Gemma thought it was going to be. And even better, the hard work was already done, allowing safe entry into the building. Inside, it resembled a warehouse, with rooms bordering the side across two floors. Many of the HYDRA agents lay on the floor, although in the centre, as Gemma had requested, a few were gathered alive, tied to some chairs. Observing them was Steve and Thor; Tony had obviously decided to go back to whatever he was doing.
"Where are the bodies?" Clint asked, observing the space. Steve nodded in the direction of one of the doors.
"You know," Gemma said slowly, "one of the rules is that you don't keep suspects together in a holding cell."
"You need to tell us all these rules," Steve replied, casting her a glance.
"You learn them over time," Gemma said. "There's no more than fifty, but everything past forty is for emergencies."
"Emergency rules?" Natasha cocked an eyebrow.
"For example, rule forty. If it seems like someone's out to get you, they are," Gemma recited.
"I like that one," Natasha responded. "So, how are we doing this interrogating?" There was a silence as everyone stopped, gathering back, looking at Gemma.
"What do you want to do?" Steve echoed when Gemma said nothing.
"Why are you asking me?" she responded, knitting her brows together in confusion.
"Well, you did order this," Natasha answered.
"But I didn't-"
"Missions change along the way," Steve said. "You take the lead on this now." He nodded his head once in reassurance.
"Okay." She sighed. "Erm. There's only five. Whilst we wait for Tony and a response from Maria, I'll go through them one at a time. Natasha, I'd like you in there with me." The assassin nodded, walking towards one of the rooms she'd inspected earlier. "Clint, just make sure there's no funny business out here." Gemma nodded towards the hostages they'd taken. None of them seemed particularly happy. "Thor, Steve, have another look around here and the perimeter. Help Tony with whatever he needs."

The investigations were a little more successful than Gemma thought they would've been. One scientist, in particular, seemed to want to make up for the mistake of joining HYDRA, whilst the others were more resistant, even to Natasha's methods. By the time they were done, Maria had assured them the bodies found would be taken care of, and Tony was more or less finishing up.
"So, what should we do with these?" Natasha asked Gemma.
"What do you think we should do?" Gemma responded, turning to the assassin. Natasha hummed in thought, so Gemma turned to Steve. "Any ideas, Captain?"
"We leave them as a message. That we're coming for HYDRA," Steve answered. Gemma looked at Natasha, who nodded in agreement.
"So, we'll leave them. Does that mean we're done here?"
"If we go now, we can leave Tony," Natasha said, grinning.
"Heard that!"