I really preferred being a glorified secretary.

I picked yet another spiderweb out of my dark brown hair and tried my best not to sneeze. The dust was killing me, and I looked at Bucky in envy when he showed no signs of being bothered at all. Of course, he didn't have enhanced senses and the super soldier formula meant that he had a hell of an immune system, among other things, so allergic reactions were not a thing in his world anymore. I didn't get sick either and had no allergies, but my sensitive nose meant that things like pollen and dust irritated me more than they did when I was human. One of the many drawbacks of my transformation before arriving on this Earth. Exactly what were the benefits again?

Times like these, they were easy to forget.

I didn't know what we were doing here. No one had been in this part of the complex for years, maybe even decades. The dust on the floor was an inch thick, the only living things around were the spiders and the rats I could hear moving around in the walls. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of rat droppings, and I did sneeze then.

"You picking up anything?" Bucky asked as he ducked a low hanging beam.

"Dust and rat shit. And since when did you start wearing cologne?"

Bucky looked a little affronted. "Thought I'd try something new...is it that bad?"

"It stinks. You know they make that shit out of beaver piss and whale vomit, right?" My back was to him but I knew Bucky was pulling the collar of his top away from his neck to sniff himself while trying to be subtle about it. "Seriously, I'm not picking up anything. Are you sure your intel was right?"

"It was pretty solid, and anyway we've only been through this part of the complex. Hydra may have holed up somewhere else." Then Bucky muttered a curse when he ran face first into another spiderweb. "Can you make more of those balls? I'm dying here."

"I made three of them." The glowing white balls were lighting up the way for us. I'd become more proficient in magic in the past year and a half I'd been on this Earth. "There's plenty of light. Not my fault you have a talent for running into every web in this place." I crouched in my black trousers, my long hair tied back in a braid to keep it out of the way, to inspect a corner where I thought I caught something but it turned out to be a dead lizard.

We made our way down the long-abandoned corridor of the old Hydra base. As much as I wanted to find Steve Rogers, who'd been missing for six months, I kind of hoped we wouldn't find anything here. The place gave me the creeps. Our footsteps and voices echoed in the empty halls. The walls seemed to pulsate with malice and faint echoes of memories of the things that had been done here. Along with the dust I had smelled dried blood and other old bodily fluids, along with the musty scent of decades-old decay. It was dark, and random sounds in the walls such as rats scratching or pipes groaning sent skitters along my spin, making me feel like the spiders from the never-ending webs were crawling down my black top.

It was giving me the willies, and my hackles were up. I was holding it together so far, but I really, really wanted to get out of here. It was hot and even though the structure was vast I was still experiencing a bit of a claustrophobic feeling. I could feel the walls closing in, and my heart pounded.

There was a reason I never went out on missions unless it was absolutely unavoidable and I was really needed.

I ended up making a fourth glowing ball. And regretted it instantly when it highlighted an old, dusty skeleton wearing a helmet with Hydra's little octopus logo stamped on it.

I stumbled backwards, trying to remember how to breathe and just barely managed not to scream. It's just a body, I told myself. A very old body. And he had been a Hydra agent in life, a bad guy. I shouldn't freak out over it.

I closed my eyes and turned away while gulping.

I really, really missed my desk and computer back at the mansion. Unfortunately, the others needed my nose, and they also needed my empathy just in case Steve was holed up nearby and there was no other way to detect him. I could argue that Hydra had the technology to create psychic shielding to fool me, but I wanted to find him every bit as much as the others did. So I didn't argue when I was asked to accompany them on these searches.

It was another hour of listening to our own footsteps before we reached a sealed door. I smelled iron and my lips automatically curled in disgust even though it was rust, not blood. I now had a reflexive reaction to the scent. Bucky grabbed the handles and pulled, putting all of his strength into it.

It only budged a slight bit. Since I was stronger, it was my turn to have a go. I grabbed the handles, feeling very grateful that I had the foresight to put on gloves, and yanked backwards. The doors were stubborn but with an ear-piercing creak and a loud groan they finally gave way, releasing the ghost of a thousand odors. I let go of the handles, turned into a corner, and spat since it seemed like I had swallowed a lungful of dust, along with the smells of spoiled food, dried sweat, and the intermingled scents of more individuals than I could count. It would take me forever to sort through them all.

"A bunch of people were here recently," I told Bucky as he stepped carefully into the room ahead of me. I traced his steps as I followed. I had learned quickly that it was best to follow his lead to the letter on these missions...that meant move when he told me it was clear, step where he stepped, and run when he said run. "I smell wool. Fleece. Sleeping bags and blankets, maybe?"

"Or they were keeping sheep in here," he replied as he checked out the nooks and crannies, my floating orbs following and illuminating the corners and crevices. It wasn't as dusty in here, and the sides of the room were lined with old machinery. I crouched to the floor and inhaled. No, the scents I was picking up were human, and there had been a large group of them. I was scenting a lot of different tones that my brain put various labels on...blueberries, milk and caramel, among others. That's how my sense of smell worked...no one smelled exactly like fruit or candy. It's just I picked up an individual scent, and my brain would label it a scent that was similar to it. Like how it kept insisting on labeling Bucky "grass and oranges". It was something that was the most familiar that I could easily put a finger on.

I inhaled again, feeling hopeful, but I didn't pick up the one scent I was looking for: The sweet, simple aroma that my brain associated with Bazooka Joe Bubblegum. Steve Roger's scent. I shook my head when Bucky looked at me expectantly. His jaw tensed.

Then I tensed when I heard footsteps coming our way. "Someone's coming," I silently mouthed to Bucky. He quickly drew out two knives while I stood up and curled my hands into fists, which flashed with golden energy.

"They came this way, Lemar. Maybe they found something."

Bucky and I both rolled our eyes. I went back to kneeling on my haunches to sort out scents, while Bucky just crossed his arms and waited.

With Steve missing, the government in their infinite wisdom decided that a Captain America was needed in order to keep morale up and not send the public into a panic. Despite protests from his teammates, among other people, some higher ups spun a story to the media that Steve had retired, and four months after he had vanished a new Captain America was introduced to the world.

To those of us who knew Steve and knew he hadn't "retired", it had been a slap in the face. Some might see it as a message that the government had given up hope. What it really was had been a power grab, an opportunity for the United States government to do what it had been wanting to do ever since they first injected Steve with the serum back in the Forties. They had wanted a superhero they could control, something which Steve had not allowed. The Sokovia Accords of several years ago had been another attempt to force superheroes under government control, and from my understanding the passage of the act had sparked a rift that widened when Steve defied the governments of the world protecting Bucky after he was framed for a bombing in Europe. The Sokovia Accords were no longer law, which I was thankful for because I was not about to register as a superhuman. I didn't keep it a secret, but I didn't advertise it either. I still lived with the fear that the angels who had abducted and tortured me might one day find me again so they could finish the job. Putting myself on a government registry would have left me feeling exposed. That was another reason I was reluctant to go on missions or even consider myself an Avenger. I was happy being The Help.

Anyway, the US government wasn't about to give up. They handpicked a good obedient Southern cornfed type with blond hair and blue eyes who had also been in the military, and gave him the Stars and Stripes along with the shield that had been the only thing recovered from the last place Steve had been seen.

I remembered the exact moment I heard on the TV that John Walker was the new Captain America. I remembered clearly because I had been holding one of Loki's expensive crystal glasses filled with ginger ale and had shattered it when I squeezed my hand while watching the whole thing unfold on TV. Fortunately, Loki hadn't been upset about the glass or the carpet, but he had been pretty annoyed when I tried to pick the glass out of my hand by myself.

Seems the US government was full of slime no matter which Earth I was on. And speaking of slime...I hadn't met Walker in person, and now I was wishing things had stayed that way. As he marched into the room like he owned the place, his sidekick by his side, holding that shield like a damn badge, I felt the urge to find the nearest river and go for a very long swim with a case of bleach. I rolled my shoulders as though the action might dislodge the feeling of sticky muck clinging to me and gave the scents in the room much more attention and concentration than they needed or deserved.

"Fancy seeing you again, Barnes," Walker greeted Bucky. I felt his eyes on me. "She's new."

"She's working, leave her alone," Bucky warned, but I heard Walker's heavy footfalls coming nearer anyway. I stifled the growl that wanted to roll out of my throat.

"Hey there, John Walker, Captain America," and he proceeded to try to place a hand on my shoulder. I was too fast, and crabwalked as far from him as I could get. Over the past year I had finally progressed to the point where I could accept touches from friends as long as they gave me plenty of notice and did not surprise me. We learned that I didn't handle Surprise Hugs very well when Bruce tried it and I had blacked out and tried to stab him in the thigh with the scissors on my desk. Thank God he had been in his Hulk form, and it hadn't been anyone else—even Thor might have come away crippled. After that everyone knew to approach me from the front if they wanted to offer me a hug.

Loki could pretty much do anything he wanted to me now, which was a huge change from how things were when he first expressed interest in me. Close friends like Bucky, Stephen, Nat, Thor, and a few others were careful, but I was okay with them touching me after months of desensitization and patience, although as the Bruce and scissors incident showed, even they had to watch it. Strangers and people I didn't know well, nor liked? No way. Not happening.

Especially with the vibes coming off Walker.

"Whoa!" John exclaimed when I had moved away as fast as I did. "That was cold...what's the problem? I swear I showered earlier!"

"Doesn't matter how clean you are, you're probably fucking things up for her...she's trying to sort out the scents she picked up," Bucky snapped, feeling and sounding angry. He felt like he was itching for a fight, which was understandable. Steve was his best friend, had been missing for half a year, and now the government had given his shield away to some wannabe. We weren't even sure Steve was dead, for God's sake, and even if he were to replace him as quickly as the government had was way beyond disrespectful. Fuck, if he was dead, at least let him be buried first.

As mad as I was, though, I knew I would have to make sure Bucky didn't lose it. It felt very weird to do that...usually it was him and the others making sure I didn't go off the deep end.

"Scents? So, is she some kind of bloodhound?"

"She's not a dog!" Bucky was almost growling. I was ignoring Walker, the man was not worth my time or attention, but Bucky was highly pissed. We needed to go before he snapped.

"I picked up all the scents I'm going to get anyway," I told Bucky. "There are about fourteen of them, and I need some time to mull over them, see if I can follow each one...some of them are leading out the way John came in..."

"The way Cap came in," John tried to correct me. I ignored him.

"And others are going off in other directions. James is right though, the fewer people in here, the easier it'll be for me to sort through all this." I looked imploringly up to the men. The anger wasn't helping matters either...it was hard to concentrate with all the negativity charging the air.

"I'm not leaving you," Bucky stated flatly as he glared at Walker and his friend...Lemar, I guessed.

"Well, this is a crime scene, and Lemar and I aren't leaving either...we're going to secure this complex and get our team in to process it." He had the balls to nod to me. "Good job, but we can take it from here."

Excuse me? "The hell? I just got here and found all these scents belonging to the people who'd been camping here!"

"And we thank you for your service, but we have dogs if we need those scents tracked further, and tech like infrared to set up trails."

"Infrared isn't going to pick up trails that are this old...it relies on heat signatures that fade a minute after the foot made the print! And dogs can't talk, they can't tell you which individual is which," I was standing at my full height now as I argued. It wasn't really intimidating...I was 5'5" and skinny, while Walker was 6 feet and heavily muscled. But I couldn't believe that someone this stupid had been picked to be Steve's successor.

The distinctive whap whap of helicopter blades filled the air from a distance, and I could also hear the telltale rumble of heavy vehicles coming closer.

"Can you tell us though? Do you know the names of these people?"

I was grinding my teeth. Bucky actually reached over to touch my arm. I stared Walker down, and he dismissed me. "If we need something, we'll be sure to call. And the next time you get a lead, don't leave us in the dark."

And just like that, we were shoved out.

I never wanted to hit someone so badly in my life.

The next morning, after a very long and thorough shower along with a long walk in Central Park to clear my head, I had my earpods in listening to recorded whale song as I worked to coax a bit more space out of Beezlebub, the cantankerous server that I swore Tony created just to antagonize me from a distance. Having enhanced hearing really, really sucked. It meant that I got to be privy to the private lives of all my friends and colleagues, whether I wanted to be or not. Today that insight was in the form of the latest installment of the Carol And Rhodey Drama Hour, which took place upstairs in one of the meeting rooms but I could hear as plain as if the two of them were arguing in this room, even with the soundproofing Tony put in.

I really wish the two of them would get a room and get it over with, but I didn't dare say anything. The last time I had decided to say something, which was to Thor about Sif, I had gotten yelled at and told to mind my own business. Thor apologized for yelling at me after the fact. Well, he apologized after Loki had threatened to turn him into a frog again if he didn't, but even with the timing the remorse the Thunderer had felt had been genuine. Still, I didn't want to get yelled at again, nor be subject to another one of Loki's "I told you so" lectures, so I kept my mouth shut.

Although it might be worth getting screamed at once just to have some damn peace and quiet in the mornings around here. This had been going on ever since Carol woke up three months ago. She and Rhodey were both vying to take over Steve's role as leader of the Avengers in his absence. They had finally agreed, grudgingly, to work together but they argued about everything. Everyone else thought the two hated each other, but I knew better. They were so hot for one another that I swore my monitor steamed up whenever the two of them were in this room. And both of them were too stubborn to admit it.

I started to turn up the sound on my iPhone when out of nowhere the telephone on my desk rang. I blinked at it. It rang again.

That phone never rang. I could have sworn, in fact, that it was sitting on my desk just for show. It was a really big, really expensive paperweight that I used to store extra notes.

It had never once rung in the past year I'd been here. The phone rang again, and I slowly, cautiously reached for it, treating it like a possible explosive device instead of a phone. I picked up the receiver and brought it to my ear. "Um...Avengers Mansion, may I help you?"

"This is the Secretary of State for California. I need the Avengers right away," a gruff voice answered.

"Okay, what seems to be the problem, Sir?" I sat back to listen.

"There's been some trouble in Death Valley I need investigated."

"Have you tried the FBI?" Death Valley. That was going to be a fun one to take to the arguing duo upstairs. Carol wouldn't be bothered by the heat, or at least I didn't think she would be. Rhodey...oh, he was going to love this.

"FBI? Fucking Bunch of Idiots, they're as useful as tits on a boar. This is superhuman related, I tell you, and I need the Avengers! They left quite a mess and you might want to bring that hot brunette along...the chick with the nose, the bloodhound."

That was the second time someone had called me that. I didn't like it when John Walker called me that, and I didn't like it coming from the Secretary here. "Fine. Where exactly in Death Valley is it?"

"Sewage treatment plant. Just Google it. I'm telling you, it's a damn mess. Rotten sewage everywhere, just streams of it running all over the desert for miles, flooding the plant. You can smell it hundreds of miles away."

My stomach sank at the word "sewage", and sank even further with every other word the Secretary said. Sewage, that smelled that bad to people with a normal nose, with my sense of smell? Lovely. Just lovely. This was going to be one for the diary. "Fine. We'll just need to find a spot nearby to land the Quinjet and get our team together, along with some hazmat gear."

"Good luck with that. It's all desert, shifting sand everywhere, and there's no safe spot for aircraft to land. Closest spot is about fifty miles north. Oh, and the roads were all washed out by the last flood, so you'll have a nice hike ahead of you in triple digit heat. I can't see how you'll manage all that in hazmat gear. In fact, my health experts are warning against taking that measure, says the risk of heatstroke is too great to allow anyone to wear biohazard suits and respirators. And anyway, wouldn't those mess with your little scenting powers? You'll have to remove the respirator anyway."

This was becoming a bit much. "A sewage treatment plant. In triple digit heat. A fifty-mile hike from the nearest landing point. No biohazard suits or respirators."

"That's what I said, what are you, deaf?"

"Just a minute, Sir...I really feel you need to be more respectful. You called asking for our help, after all."

"Respect? I'll give you respect, you-"

Then I heard a voice in the background exclaim "Rocket, what are you doing?!" That was followed by the sound of the phone being wrestled away, along with a foot connecting with a wall.

Rocket? Oh, shots had been fired. "You rotten overgrown sewer rat! When we finally meet in person, I'm turning you into a hat! And I won't be using magic to do it!"

"Pet, you don't even like killing wasps," Loki's amused voice answered me. I could hear the little stinker laughing in the background.

"Hey, he didn't need to know that!" I was deeply in love with Loki, but I wasn't blind to his faults, one of them being that he had a very big mouth. "Now put the trash panda back on so I can yell at him some more."

I could still hear the asshole in the background going "The way her voice fell after I told her it was a sewage plant...priceless..."

"I am Groot," another voice answered him.

"I missed you too, my sweet," Loki told me in a voice still laced with amusement.

I sighed. It was good to hear him. He'd been gone for two weeks with Thor and the Guardians on a very long mission, and I had missed him. "So, you guys must be back on Earth or close to us in order for Rocket to make a prank call."

"We will be landing in a few minutes. I am looking forward to seeing you. How is your morning going?"

I winced at the sounds of Part 2 of the Carol And Rhodey Show starting up. "Don't ask."

"Ah. I take it Danvers and Rhodes are still at it?"

"I'm ready to kill them both. Or at least hose them down."

"Thor wants to know if there's been any progress in finding Rogers?"

I sighed. "No."

"I see. I will be home shortly, Pet."

"I'll leave now, see you soon."

"Take your time. I need to teach the Rabbit a lesson."

"Don't you dare! He's mine!"

Loki had already hung up. I rolled my eyes. Another one of his faults: He was a bit old fashioned in his thinking at times, and felt the need to defend his lady's honor when she'd been slighted even though she was perfectly capable of handling herself. Well, he had centuries of experience on me when it came to coming up with retaliation for pranks, so whatever he came up with would be better than what I did anyway.

There was a loud crash from upstairs, followed by Carol yelling at the top of her lungs, and that was my cue to take off. I grabbed my things and fled to my Rabbit parked outside.