Chapter 3 - SHIELD
DISCLAIMER: We do not own Marvel or any of the characters. The only ones which are ours are the Russell sisters. :)
Author's Note: Welp, this was faster than I'd expected! Don't count on getting the next chapter next month, but I do hope that we'll have it done. :P
~ Amina Gila
"We need to destroy this place to send a message that they can't be doing things like this and to ensure that they can't replicate it," Abigail declares firmly, looking between the others. They all nod emphatically. "To start with, we should destroy the computer so they can't get any information from it."
Natalie whips out her sword.
"No, we're not hacking it to pieces," Abigail replies, not even looking at her.
"We could send an EMP blast through it," points out Rosanna.
"That'll work," Tamika agrees, "We can do that once we're done with it." She continues to look through the information on it, to see if there's anything else of interest or importance.
"But how would we destroy the robots?" Natalie inquires.
Everyone exchanges thoughtful looks.
"What if we turned one of them on to shoot apart the others?" Rosana suggests suddenly.
"That might work," Abigail murmurs.
"But it would be noisy," reminds Tamika.
"Yes, we so we have to hurry."
"Hmm... how about their firing mechanism? Maybe we could set them to blow themselves apart. It would bring the whole place down," Rosana proposes.
"I have the diagram right here," Tamika announce, pulling it up on her screen.
"We need a mechanic," huffs Abigail as she scans over it. Natalie scurries away, looking for something that might control the robots. It doesn't take long.
"I found a control panel!" she calls from the next room. Her older sisters hurry into the room.
"Tammy, do your thing," urges Abigail.
She quickly steps up to the controls, overriding them to send an enormous amount of power to each of the robots. Lights on the panel immediately begin flashing, with a warning that if it stays like this, the robots are going to detonate in two minutes. Abigail sends an EMP blast into the computer while the others move the robots into place around the walls. Natalie whips out her sword again and stabs it through the screen, then takes care to fully destroy the memory part.
"One of the guard's phones was ringing," a nervous Enya reports as they step outside, "I think someone might be coming here soon."
"Good. I think we're ready to get out of here," Natalie murmurs. They drag the guards a distance away from the building, so they won't be caught in the explosion, and then, they bolt.
Natalie slams to a stop at the sound of an approaching car, and they all hastily step back into the pine trees right on the outside of the fence, waiting. Moments later, a dark car drives down the road, disappearing around the corner.
Not even five seconds later, a thunderous explosion shakes the ground around them, lighting up the night as the walls and ceiling of the warehouse cave in. Ouch. Natalie is pretty sure she should have worn earplugs.
With a final last glance at their handiwork, they run to the vehicle to get out of there.
**w**
"Uh oh. Looks like we have a visitor," Enya observes as they pull up to their house to see an unmarked vehicle parked out front. Tamika frowns. Could someone have tracked their actions to them? Yes, Natalie and Enya were quite visible, to say the least, when they destroyed the rogue robot, but... Whatever this is, she's sure they can handle it. Hopefully.
It's then that a familiar figure walks around from the other side of the car. She recognizes him immediately.
Phil Coulson.
They get out of the car, casually approaching him. Or at least Tamika hopes it looks casual, because she can only guess what he might want. "May I help you?" she asks cautiously. If SHIELD heard about what they did last night already, they might be in trouble. Maybe they shouldn't have stopped when returning home. A direct trip may have been best, even if they would have been exhausted.
"I am here to make an offer."
"What kind of offer?" Abigail asks, then pauses. "You know what, we should probably go inside. This might be a long conversation."
"Good point," Rosana agrees, and Abigail heads inside. The others follow, and Tamika feels the hint of seidr as her older sister hastily casts an illusion across the fanart pictures hanging up in the house. Good. They do not need anyone to be seeing those.
They enter the house, taking seats around the living room.
"Unless I have my facts wrong, the two youngest of you were spotted defeating a rogue droid downtown," Coulson informs them bluntly as soon as the brief introductions are complete. So, he knows, then. At least he doesn't know everything. Or Tamika hopes he doesn't.
"Yes," Rosana replies cautiously.
"Would be interested in doing things like this on a larger scale?" In other words, working for SHIELD? They had considered it when they first came through, but it's not the type of thing they were trained for. Back on their Earth, they never worked for anyone. Just... themselves, really. SHIELD doesn't work for the people, not like it should.
"Defeating rogue robots?" Abigail asks, with surprisingly well-feigned confusion.
He gives her a flat look. "Helping combat hostile forces such as that one."
"Perhaps?" the oldest sister replies hesitantly glancing at the others. Tamika really isn't sure what to think of this. They just came here, and already managed to get on SHIELD's radar. How many other people's attention have they already gotten?
"I'm sure we aren't the only ones who have taken notice of your skills. Other forces will have as well. Malevolent ones," he warns.
"Thank you for your concern, but we can take care of ourselves," Abigail replies smoothly.
"I have no doubt about that." There is a momentary pause while he seems to be considering something. "I am assuming that you were the ones responsible for the mysteriously destroyed warehouse a few hours north?" Coulson asks unexpectedly.
Tamika does her best to stop herself from visibly stiffening. How did they figure that out so fast? It makes sense for them to keep an eye on people who popped up out of mysteriously nowhere, but how did they draw attention so fast like this? Had it been longer, it would have made sense, but this... They do not need SHIELD knowing it was them who did that.
"What?" Abigail asks, confused. She's good at this.
But unfortunately, Coulson seems to see through it anyway. Either that or he already knew and was just asking to see how they'd react. "I can't support your actions, but I don't disagree," he declares finally.
"We'll need some time to consider your offer," Tamika speaks up at last.
"Of course. You don't need to make your decision now." He sets a card down on the coffee table in front of him. "Call me when you decide." He slips out of the house and closes the door. Natalie locks it with a flick of her wrist, and a touch of seidr.
"So, what do you think?" Abigail inquires, turning to the others.
"If we can remain somewhat independent, I think we should do it," Tamika declares. After all, that's the most important part. It would be best if they could stay close to the going's on, but she doesn't want to risk getting too caught up with SHIELD. Even they don't know how deeply HYDRA has control over it, and it's not something she wants to chance.
"They know about us now, and if they realize that we just came out of nowhere, it won't be good," Rosana points out, "They'll be watching us."
"Yeah, we're likely to be forcibly brought in for questioning," the oldest sister sighs.
"Then there's that other thing," Rosana adds. "If we don't, we won't be able to change anything during Avengers until the final battle."
Good point. Tamika really, really doesn't want that. It's going to be more than strange to live through that, yet the more lives they can save, the better. The final battle can't be avoided completely, but they can do as much as possible beforehand.
"You're right," the oldest agrees. "We can't stop it, but we can minimize the damage."
"I agree," Enya says slightly nervously.
"Me too," Natalie nods. "I'm not waiting so long to meet Steve." Tamika can't help but smirk slightly at that.
"When should we call them back?" Abigail asks.
"Tomorrow?" Tamika supplies.
"This afternoon, or tomorrow afternoon?" Rosana questions.
"I think we should wait until next week," Natalie objects. "This is supposedly an extremely life altering decision we have to make."
"And we don't want to seem too excited about it," Enya reminds.
"So, it's settled then. We'll call him back next week," Abigail concludes.
Tamika just hopes it's not too late by then.
**w**
It's the middle of next week when their next meeting with Coulson is arranged at a nearby restaurant. Rosana does her best to play along, acting totally clueless, while Coulson explains briefly about SHIELD and its purpose. So far, so good. Maybe they were able to cover their tracks of appearing out of nowhere pretty well after all.
"Who exactly are you?" Phil suddenly asks, almost as though reading her mind. So much for that.
"What?" Rosana asks, feigning confusion.
"What do you mean by that?" queries Abigail, looking equally bemused.
"You're identities are forged, though you've covered it well," he states, "Who are you really?"
The sisters exchange glances with each other before Abigail begins speaking. They'd discussed this before, of what if someone realized that their identities were fake, and this is the best story that they can come up with. Hopefully, SHIELD will buy it. It makes logical sense. "Well, we're not from Earth. We're from Asgard," Abigail responds, "Our mother was Asgardian and our father was from here. We wanted to stay here and fit in without creating a big 'there are aliens around here' commotion."
His expression remains pretty much neutral, though Rosana gets the feeling he might not totally believe them. "What are your intentions?" he asks finally.
"To help?" Rosana offers.
"We're just trying to fit in," Tamika declares.
"If you're really from Asgard, how did you get here?" Phil inquires.
"There are pathways between the worlds known only to a few," Natalie points out cheerfully. It's not a lie. It just doesn't answer his question even though he hopefully doesn't know that. Rosana just hopes he doesn't ask where the pathways are, because they don't have a clue, except most of them are probably in Norway. At least that's what she assumes.
"Can you prove that you're really Asgardian?" he presses.
"We have, what you could call on Earth, magic," Abigail explains slowly.
"Can you show me?"
Abigail pulls out her daggers for a moment, before stashing them back into her pocket dimension. No one in the restaurant better see those, or they might freak out.
Tamika promptly blinks out of existence before reappearing. Rosana reaches out with her seidr, generating an illusion of Lucky sitting on the table. It patters across it, stopping right in front of Phil with its tongue hanging out, a look incomprehensible delight on its face.
Natalie snorts at the dog's antics, before summoning a coin to her hands. Rosana realizes instantly what it is. "This is a currency from Asgard," Natalie informs Phil, holding out the coin for him to see. Their mother had had some with her when she had ended up on their Earth so many years ago, and had always kept them with her. She'd given each of the five of them one of the coins. Enya materializes her laptop out of her pocket dimension.
"So what you call magic, is that basically energy manipulation?" queries Phil. At least he finally sounds like he believes them, though it would be hard not to, considering everything they just did. It's not like any of that could have been just a bunch of tricks.
"Yes, basically it is," Enya nods.
"Do you think you'd be able to help with things of a scientific nature, such as explaining how you can do some of those things from a scientific perspective?" he queries.
"We might be able to help a little but we never studied the intricate workings of seidr - magic in detail. Our abilities aren't as strong as many Asgardians," explains Abigail.
He nods in understanding and silence falls over them for a few moments before Phil speaks again. "Is magic always active or can it be passive too? Like in objects?" Why does Rosana get the feeling he might be thinking about a 'certain' object?
"It can be in objects," answers the oldest, "But it often requires skilled mages to use it."
"Do you have any experience with such objects?" he wonders, leaning forward with a look of interest on his face.
"Not really, no," Rosana informs him after a pause.
"That's all for now," Phil decides, "But Director Fury would like to meet with you."
**w**
"I feel like it isn't safe enough to just have one copy of those," Abigail remarks as Enya closes her laptop. They decided to spend the remainder of the day watching Infinity War. Natalie nods her agreement. For such important documentation, it's better not to take any chances.
"Enya can keep it in her pocket dimension," Rosana offers. Well, yes, but she has been this whole time, at least in addition to the physical copies which are being kept by Abigail. They hadn't wanted to leave them behind at their ranch, and Natalie is glad they didn't.
"I don't think that's safe enough," insists Abigail.
"Neither do I," Natalie concurs. There's no saying what could happen. Endless things could go wrong, and it's ridiculous to trust the fate of the universe to a single laptop and set of DVDs.
"We're going up against Thanos, and we can't afford to lose them," Abigail continues, "I know we have the physical copies, and I was thinking we can hide those under an invisibility spell together once we have an apartment to live in. Maybe we should download the movies to a hard drive, so two more of us can keep them with us. I can keep one of them. Who should keep the other?"
"I can!" Tamika and Rosana both exclaim at once. Natalie decides not to offer, even though she wouldn't mind, because the others have already volunteered. Everyone shouldn't need a copy, and for some reason, something tells her it's not a good idea, though she doesn't know why.
"Okay... let's a flip a coin!" Abigail suggests.
Natalie smirks. "But there's a coin shortage, remember? With the coronavirus and all?" Enya rolls her eyes dramatically and groans from where she's sitting on the couch, writing in a notebook. She's hardly said anything since she got it out towards the end of Infinity War, and Natalie suspects that she's writing down more fanfiction ideas. All of them are avid writers, and they enjoy dabbling with different alternatives.
"Well, we do have coins with us, in case you forgot," Rosana reminds, sighing dramatically. Natalie nearly laughs. They're truly lucky to have escaped the madness that had become their original dimension by coming here. It was beyond exhausting to hear everyone prattling non-stop about coin shortages and riots and mask laws and, of course, COVID-19.
"And we aren't in that universe anymore, we so we don't have to worry about it," Tamika replies, conjuring a nickel. "I'm heads. You're tails." She flips the coin, and it falls onto the table in front of them with a loud clank. "Heads," she announces. "I get it."
"Fine," Rosana concedes.
"Let's get to work," advises Enya. Abigail goes to buy two hard drives, and after she comes back, Natalie watches Enya set her laptop up to do the downloads before going to help prepare dinner. The downloads are complete when she checks shortly before they go to bed. The task is complete. Despite her excitement, Natalie falls asleep as soon as her head is on the pillow.
**w**
Natalie and Enya sit in the back seat of the car waiting for their three oldest sisters to return from the meeting. They figured there was no reason for the ones younger than eighteen to attend anyway, and the two youngest were more than happy to oblige.
Lucky barks, jumping up into the seat next to Natalie and looking out the window. She's growing exceedingly restless being trapped in the car for such long periods of time lately. Natalie leans back in her seat, intentionally staring pointedly at the dog as she waits for Enya to guess what object out the window she just described in a couple words.
They've been at the game ever since the oldest three left. Enya is always accidentally looking at the object's she described and making it far too easy for Natalie to guess correctly.
"Squirrel?" Enya guesses finally, an exasperated sigh escaping her.
"No!" cries Natalie, unable to suppress a giggle. "There are no squirrels out here in this part of New York!"
Enya practically facepalms. "Hey," she pipes up a moment later, "You'll never believe what I found before we came here."
"Really?" Natalie asks interestedly, "What?"
"A whole bunch of World War II footage that includes Steve and Bucky," she says cheerfully.
"What?" she all but shrieks. She's not sure if she's more surprised or gleeful right now.
"Don't tell me you never considered that we'd be able to see a ton more with them."
"Well... I didn't actually think about it much yet," admits Natalie. She's been too focused on fitting into society here and covering their tracks, so no one realizes that they don't belong here, not to mention figuring out what to change and how to do so. "I wanna see everything you found as soon as we get back home."
Just then, the doors to the SHIELD building slide open, and their older sisters walk out, effectively ending the conversation.
"What happened?" demands Natalie as the three climb into the car, and Lucky returns to her seat on the floor in between the center seats of the car.
"They wanted to know more details about our seidr and abilities. And they have agreed to give us jobs, but just as I expected, they'll only accept me, Tammy, and Rosie, not Natie and Eny," Abigail tells them.
A sigh of disappoint escapes Natalie. She was really hoping that at least she'd be able to work with them since she's already seventeen. But so much for that. Enya isn't looking any happier.
"But you will be able to help," Abigail reassures them, "They want you to practice healing with seidr." That seems like a slightly weird request, Natalie can't help but think. Maybe they just think it will be more useful in the future. Unless they're hoping to use that as a way to be able to study their seidr.
Rosana fires up the engine and turns to drive out of the parking lot.