April 2nd, 2014
New York, New York—SHIELD Headquarters, archives
Quinn was back in the archives as early as she could manage, which was about seven thirty in the morning. She had a big chai latte in one hand, and her phone in the other, waiting for a text or call from one of her friends in DC giving her the okay to leave New York. She worked as diligently as she could and managed to get most of the paperwork done, even though she knew it was a distraction. It was something to do until she could figure out what she was supposed to be paying attention to anyway.
As the nine-to-fivers started arriving, Quinn went upstairs to the coffee cart in the lobby to order another latte and watch people come into work. Was it the staff she was supposed to be paying attention to? Visitors? Agents coming in from field assignments? The building itself?
She walked slowly back to the archives elevator, a separate car that only went down into the temperature-controlled floors where paperwork, computer servers, and artifacts of all kinds were stored. On the way a few people nodded to her or said hello, but mostly, Quinn kept her head down, sipped her latte, and waited, trying to keep her eye on everything. And feeling more frustrated than the night before.
After about thirty minutes of dawdling, Quinn stepped into the elevator to head back down and finish her work. She checked her phone as the car began to descend, but there were still no new messages. Steve had texted her after she'd fallen asleep to say he was heading back to the Triskelion in the morning to talk to Alexander Pierce, who had asked to talk to him about Fury's death. Quinn knew Fury and the World Security Council secretary were close, but something still felt off about the whole situation. She'd told Steve as much in her response, but he hadn't even seen her text yet.
When her phone went off a little while later, she grabbed it, hoping for a message from one of her friends and instead seeing a notice from SHIELD that made her blood run cold.
ATTN: ALL AGENTS
Level 1 Clearance
PRIORITY ONE
CAPTAIN STEVEN G. ROGERS
"Captain America"
FUGITIVE FROM SHIELD
Shaking, Quinn clicked the notification, opening up the official order, hoping for more details, something that would make it make sense, despite knowing there wasn't anything that could.
Wanted for information withheld about the death of Director Nicholas J. Fury.
Evaded apprehension and on the run.
Considered extremely dangerous.
Apprehension of Captain Rogers and all known associates has been ordered.
Level 1 Clearance—all agents to stop current assignments.
This is PRIORITY ONE.
Known Active Associates: Agent Natasha Romanoff, Agent Clint Barton, Agent Quinn Scott, Agent Maria Hill, Tony Stark "Iron Man," Dr. Bruce Banner "Hulk"
"Fuck," Quinn said emphaticaly, despite there being no one else in the room with her. No one else yet, anyway. She had to use her ID card to get into the archives, so it wouldn't take long for someone to realize where she was. "At least I know what I'm supposed to pay attention to now…" Quinn quickly put away all the paperwork, finished her latte, and wished she'd put her throwing knives on before she'd left the tower that morning.
Could have used a heads-up, she texted to Hill as she made her way back to the elevator.
To Nat, she said, Please be careful and stay safe. I'll check in with Clint, make sure he and the fam are okay.
I'm on my way to DC, was the message she sent to Steve. Be careful. Don't take any stupid risks. Stay with Nat. I'll find you when I get there.
And finally, as the elevator made its way to the surface, she sent a message to Tony. I assume you saw the alert. I know you're headed to Malibu today, but I'm going to need some help getting out of here.
Tony was the only one who responded, which Quinn expected. Alley behind SHIELD. Ten minutes.
Quinn locked her phone, slipped in into the back pocket of her jeans, and zipped up her leather coat. Just as she'd made sure her brace was tight and her hair would stay back from her face, the elevator stopped, and the door opened. For what felt like three extremely slow seconds, Quinn and the three agents gathered there stared at each other. She could guess at their thoughts: that she was small, that she was disabled, that she wouldn't be difficult to apprehend.
She wouldn't go down so easily.
The easiest way to get to the alley was to run down the main hallway to the back stairwell and go out the emergency exit door, which opened onto the alleyway. Quinn just hoped it was only three agents who had come to stop her. What the division was between the agents obeying the order and those who weren't, Quinn didn't know, but it didn't matter.
She just had to get outside.
"Come with us, Agent Scott, and you won't get hurt," the agent directly in front of her said as she stepped off the elevator.
Quinn thought his name was Johnson, but she wasn't sure. In fact, she wasn't sure who any of the agents were. She'd seen them around, but had never worked with or spoken to them. Part of her felt bad about that, but SHIELD was a big organization. No one could know all the agents who worked there.
"If you think I'm going with you over some bullshit claim, then you don't know the first thing about Captain America's associates," she spat. "And I'm not the one who should be worried about getting hurt."
Without waiting for a response, Quinn lunged at maybe-Johnson, planted her foot in front of him, and drove her shoulder into his chest, knocking him off his feet and into the wall hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. One of the other agents grabbed one of Quinn's wrists and tried for the other one, but Quinn side-kicked him in the crotch before he could restrain her, crumpling him to the floor. The last agent landed a punch on her ribs and kidney. Quinn bent forward, around the pain, and stumbled a few steps, before collecting herself and pulling her hands and body into a fighting stance.
She blocked the next series of punches from the female agent, one aimed at her nose, her throat, and her stomach, before she stepped into her space and slammed her elbow upwards into her chin. The agent tried to shake it off, but Quinn pulled back and landed a haymaker on her jaw, which hurt Quinn's hand like hell and sent her opponent to the floor, dazed and maybe unconscious.
"Fucking hell," Quinn cursed as she started running. She could already hear other agents coming, and her bad leg was starting to ache from the brief fight and the tension riding her body. The hallway wasn't long. She could make it before they arrived.
"Agent Scott!"
"Damn it."
"Agent Scott, stop!"
Quinn pushed herself, ran faster. A bullet whizzed by her head and slammed into the wall with a blue spark—incapacitating rounds. At least they don't want to kill me, but I won't let them use me as bait to draw Steve in, either. Another bullet struck the wall, this time to her right.
She slowed just enough to open the stairwell door, but it was enough for one of the pursuing agents to grab the back of her jacket. Quinn lunged at the emergency exit door, trying to pull free of the agent's grasp, and when that failed, she threw a sloppy kick backwards, connected with what might have been a knee, and was freed.
Quinn stumbled into the alley, catching herself on the chain-link fence marking the property line between SHIELD and the parking lot of the office building next door. She would have blocked the door if she could, but it opened out onto the alley. "Come on, Tony," she said, casting her eyes up and listening for the telltale signs of a nearby suit.
The door burst open and three more agents joined her in the tight space. Her back to the fence, Quinn raised her hands, and as the fight began, all she could think was she really needed to get back into fighting shape. A punch to her cheek and two more to the ribs later, she heard the sound she'd been waiting for: the rush of the arc-reactor-powered propulsion jets on the Iron Man suits.
"Sorry fellas," Tony said as he swept in and forced the others back with a blast from his feet. "Agent Scott is coming with me." Tony dropped in front of her with his back to the agents in case they recovered enough to start shooting. "Hold on tight, Scottie."
Quinn wrapped her arms around the neck of the suit. Tony put one arm around her waist and took off. The flight to Avengers Tower wouldn't be long and, for that, Quinn was eternally grateful. The sound of the wind rushing past her ears was almost too much, and Tony wasn't going anywhere near full speed—if he did, he'd scramble her unprotected brain when he stopped, or break a handful of bones at the very least. Still, it was only a handful of minutes later when they touched down on the flight deck of Avengers Tower, and Quinn was still a little dizzy when she let go of Tony.
"Thanks," she said as he stepped out of the suit. "I really didn't want to have to seriously hurt anyone or, you know, be captured."
"What happened?" Tony hooked an arm through Quinn's to guide her inside.
"Something happened in DC. They're blaming Steve for Fury's death. He's on the run. That's all the information I have. No one's responding to texts. I've got to get to DC," she added with a slightly-more-than-desperate look at Tony.
"Take the quinjet and set it to return on its own," he said without hesitation. "I'm heading to Malibu on my normal jet, but if it's here, they won't be able to track you that way."
"I'm not so worried about being tracked. They'll know where I'm going."
"Still."
"Okay, Mom, I'll send the jet back. Go to Malibu," Quinn said, shooing Tony away with both hands.
"Hey, hold up. Are you okay? Do we need to have a discussion about your organization betraying you?"
Quinn's first instinct was to defend SHIELD and say they hadn't really betrayed her. If they had reason to think Steve had killed Fury, no matter how preposterous that notion was, the next logical step was to round up those closest to him. But she shoved that response down because of course Steve had nothing to do with Fury's death, of course he was being set up. Why or by who, Quinn didn't know. She intended to find out, and she couldn't do that by mourning a job she had already been thinking about leaving.
"I'm fine," she said too quickly. Tony gave her a disbelieving look, and Quinn huffed. "Okay, I'm not fine. I'm pissed and sad, but that's not going to get me anywhere, so I'll deal with those feelings later. Right now, I need to get to DC and get a hold of Steve or Hill or Nat so I know where to find them."
Tony clapped Quinn on the shoulder. "Okay then. See you when I get back."
Quinn watched Tony leave, and then headed for her room to grab the bag she packed yesterday. She took a moment to administer some first-aid on her split cheek and lip, pop a few painkillers to keep the pain from her blooming bruises at bay, and then headed back upstairs to the flight deck.
"JARVIS, please send Mr. Stark a message to tell him thanks again, and I'll make sure the jet gets back," she said as she climbed aboard the Avengers quinjet. It had started life as the standard SHIELD model, but had quickly become something much more once Tony got his hands on it. Quinn loved flying that jet specifically. "I'll be sending it back from DC."
"Excellent. I will make sure Mr. Stark gets your message and make sure the jet returns safely. Is there anything else I can do for you, Agent Scott?"
"I don't think it's going to be agent much longer, so you can drop that, but no, there's nothing else."
"Good luck, Ms. Scott."
"Thanks."
She finished the flight prep and took off, the quinjet lifting smoothly into the air. Using the onboard phone, Quinn called Maria Hill without really expecting an answer; she knew better than to use her phone though, and it remained off and in her room at Avengers Tower.
"I assume you're on your way," Maria said instead of "hello."
"You bet your ass I am. Where are you? Where are Steve and Nat? And what the hell is happening?"
"As far as we can tell, Pierce or someone else high up is trying to get Fury out. We don't know why."
"Who's we?"
"Me and Director Fury. He's not dead."
Quinn stifled a scream of frustration. "Maria, I am—"
"Save it." Hill's voice was firm, her authoritative voice, and Quinn knew better than to argue with her when she was talking like that. "We needed to get him off the grid. Someone hired an assassin to take him out and he did almost die, but we had to make sure whoever it was thought they succeeded. Now, we can work in the shadows. FInd out what's really going on."
"Fine. Steve? Nat?"
Hill sighed and Quinn knew she wasn't going to like the answer. "We don't know where they are. After Steve escaped from the Triskelion, we lost him. I'm working with limited equipment here."
"Where are you?"
"I'll send the coordinates to the quinjet. It's one of Fury's secret bases. He needed somewhere hidden to heal. Once you get here, we'll find the others."
"I'm guessing Fury wants to stay dead, or you'd be asking me to bring in at least Tony."
"You guess right. And Tony's too high-profile. All the Avengers are. As much as it would be nice to have help from someone like Thor or Dr. Banner, I'm not sure how much brute force we're going to need."
"I get it." Quinn chewed her bottom lip, her stomach awash in nervous butterflies. Her mind kept feeding her worst-case scenarios, and she was growing uncomfortably anxious. "Maria, if you find Steve before I get there—"
"Don't worry, Quinn," she said. "I'll let him know you're coming if I talk to him before you do."
"Thanks. How is Fury doing?"
"He'll heal, but he's still in rough shape. His injuries were… extensive. We were lucky to get to him as fast as we did."
"Okay." She exhaled, relief loosening her shoulders and neck. "Good."
Hill made a noise somewhere between a laugh and agreement. "He says to hurry up and that he's impressed you lasted as long as you did."
"Ha. The only reason I stayed is because you told me to pay attention. I don't know what I was looking for—"
"Those who followed the directive to hunt down Steve and his friends."
"Okay, I've got some names and some descriptions. I'll scout the database once I'm there and find them so you can add them to whatever hit list you're creating."
"We've got a secure computer here. You sending the jet back?"
"Yes. I don't want them to use it to track me to wherever you're hiding."
"Good call. Too bad though. We could use some of that tech, I'm sure."
"We'll find a way to get through this, like always." Quinn hated that she couldn't end her statement there. "Right?"
"Right. See you soon, Quinn."
"See you."
Quinn ended the call and looked at the coordinates Hill had sent. They led to a dam in what was effectively the middle of nowhere. It was supposedly maintained by a company Quinn had never heard of, but one she knew would turn out to be a nearly untraceable shell set up by Fury, just like he did with every base. Some would call him paranoid, but Quinn knew he was prepared for every outcome he could think of, and he could think of a lot.
She keyed in the coordinates and set the jet to autopilot. Quinn was already tense and flying for over an hour would only make it worse, so she spent some time in the passenger/cargo area, stretching and checking over her brace for any signs of damage; thankfully, it was okay. Running through some yoga poses she had memorized, Quinn tried not to let her mind linger on those worst-case scenarios. She would see Nat and Steve again, soon.
Before she took the jet off of autopilot so she could land, Quinn sent Steve a text from the jet's computer. It's Quinn. About to land in DC. I'll be with Hill, so I'll be safe. Apparently there's lots going on. I'll find you as soon as I can.
As the quinjet touched down in a clearing near the dam, Quinn saw Hill coming out to greet her. She set the jet to return, grabbed her bag, and exited the craft. Without hesitation, Quinn threw her free arm around Maria's shoulders and hugged her.
"I am so mad at you for keeping whatever this is from me, but I'm glad you're safe."
Hill returned the hug quickly. "Glad you're safe too, though it looks like you took a few hits on the way out."
"Let's just say I'm glad I know Iron Man."
Hill laughed as the quinjet took off behind them. They started walking towards a door almost entirely grown over with ivy and other plants. "I only kept you in New York on Fury's orders, you know."
Quinn gave Hill a small smile. It felt unreal that it had been earlier that morning she was trying to picture a world without Fury, and now she was about to see him, alive and healing. "I figured as much. I'll take it up with him once I tell him how glad I am he's alive."