Chapter Eleven: The Avengers Initiative
"We're on each other's team." -Lorde
"These were in Coulson's jacket," Fury announced, once they'd sat down. He threw a stack of bloodied cards down in front of Steve, and Audrey had to look at them through the blood to realize what, exactly, they were. Coulson's trading cards. They lay limp on the table, smeared in his blood, their collectable value lost. But everyone at the table knew what they were worth.
Reluctantly, Steve reached out and cradled them gently between his fingers. He looked like he'd been hit in the gut, and Audrey started fuming again. The last thing they needed was another split right now, another reason for Steve to feel guilty. Reminding them of everything they'd messed up wasn't going to stop Loki.
She watched her father carefully, as he looked regretfully down at the cards. The old propaganda photos saluted back at him. Audrey wondered how many times Coulson himself had done this: stared at them carefully, feeling some connection to the man himself.
Never meet your heroes, Audrey supposed. Or they'll get you killed.
"Guess he never did get you to sign them."
Audrey pinched her eyes shut to stomach her anger. If she snapped at Fury, that would make things worse, too. And since they'd pretty much hit rock bottom, there was no reason to start digging so they could fall any further.
"We're dead in the air up here. We've got no comms, and Foster's doing her best to trace the cube but without a lab and without the machinery she can't get far. We've lost Banner, Thor. I've got nothing for you."
What kind of meeting was this? How was this supposed to prepare them?
Audrey wanted to believe that there was no way she knew how to handle this and Nick Fury didn't, but based on everything that had happened since they'd sat down, she was starting to. All he'd done so far was emphasize the point that they'd messed up, and deliver horrible news.
He chuckled humorlessly. "Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming."
There was a beat where nobody said anything. From her spot between Tony and Steve, Audrey could see that Tony was a minute away from losing it—he was bouncing his leg up and down anxiously, and clenching and unclenching his fists in his lap.
Steve, on the other hand, was perfectly still. His posture was stiff and uncomfortable. As if he was afraid that movement would cause more damage, so he was confining himself to the area of his chair. Even his legs were tucked underneath the seat.
From this, and from what he'd said in his speech—I can't do anything about it—Audrey wondered if sometimes he missed being small. Undoubtedly, his life would've been infinitely simplified. He wouldn't have any blood on his hands. He wouldn't have as much weight on his shoulders.
Audrey considered interrupting Fury's speech, but she didn't. Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and waited for him to continue, hopefully with something more constructive.
"Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract," he admitted finally. " I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier."
The blonde uncrossed her arms, leaning forward. This was what they needed. Strategy.
"There was an idea—Carter and Stark know this—called the Avengers Initiative."
Audrey let her gaze slide over to Tony, but he had stilled suddenly. He was unnervingly quiet at the mention of his name—no humorous comment, no argument. He looked like he didn't want to say anything anytime soon.
But Fury continued nonetheless.
"The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could."
The man paused.
"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes." Audrey looked over at the trading cards. Heroes. Right.
Though, as she thought about it, she realized that it was probably true. Phil Coulson had always put so much faith in people. Audrey wouldn't be surprised if he'd died thinking that the Avengers were going to… well, Avenge.
Now it was seeming like their only option. The last few days had changed Audrey for sure, but she was still her mother's daughter, still her father's daughter, still a fighter and an agent. Still repeating find your silver lining over and over to herself and wishing Anna was still with her to comfort her. She'd lost everything except for Steve and her mother's legacy, and she was going to fight like hell to protect them.
Tony shoved his chair away from the table, suddenly, and began to walk away. Audrey reached out and grabbed his sleeve, but he shoved her away.
"Well," Fury mused, sounding more like an old man and less like a secret agent for a moment, "it's an old fashioned notion."
Audrey looked up from her hands to the cards to Fury. She couldn't help herself. "Sometimes the world needs a little old-fashioned."
Steve looked over at her, surprised.
She continued, "Sir, I know that we've lost a lot, but we haven't lost everything. In preparation for the fight against Loki, I'd like to suggest a few people we could bring on board."
2009
The morning of March twenty-fourth, Coulson called Audrey into his office for a meeting.
"Have you heard of Caroline Carmichael?" he'd asked.
Audrey had nodded slowly. "Out of the academy? One of our assassins—I mean trigger men—trigger persons? Uh..."
"She's a field agent. Right." He cleared his throat. "See, the thing is, she's kind of… frigid."
Audrey frowned. Wasn't that the point? When S.H.I.E.L.D. sought out candidates for specialist positions, wasn't that one of the traits they looked for? "I don't mean to—to stereotype or anything here, but I've made the assumption in the past that assa—uh, field agents aren't… supposed to be warm and fuzzy."
Coulson shot her a look. "I think it would be beneficial for her to work with a handler that's more gentle. Someone like you."
Wait. Whoa. Wait. Was he assigning her to be the handler of an assassin?
What the hell? Audrey worked investigations-FBI partnerships, finding targets. Not hunting them. That was the special-ops department's job.
"Uh," she said gracelessly. "See, the thing is… I have very little experience with, um, target eliminations. But—but you are already the handler of a team! A very successful team. And you handle the Black Widow, who is arguably the most... frigid... person working for us, after Fury of course, except we all work for him—but, my point is that, why don't you add her to Strike Team Delta? I'm sure she'll be able to carry out a lot of… assassinations, and, uh, really... grow as a spy. Assassin. Agent. Person." She cringed, a hand coming up to tug at the end of her hair self consciously.
Coulson shook his head. "Natasha and Clint have formed a rhythm, it would upset things if I added a third member to the team. Clint and Caroline have trained together, they've sparred together, and they're on the same level physically. But mentally, they haven't been able to bond."
"I'm sure that if you give them time, they'll—"
"Carter."
She looked up at him.
"I'm assigning you as the handler of Caroline Carmichael, effective immediately. You will be allowed a team to help evaluate and investigate, and you will design her missions from there."
Wait. "I'll be allowed a team? Not assigned one?"
The man nodded.
"So I get to pick the members?"
He continued nodding, a small smile quirking up the edges of his lips. "I'm giving you until the end of the week to submit your candidates, and once they're approved you'll receive your first assignment."
Audrey's heart began to thud. Her own team. Coulson was giving her a leadership position. This was what she'd been hoping for for a while, but her constant changing departments always made it difficult. But here he was, giving her that chance, and all she had to do was become an difficult agent's handler.
Well… that was still a big deal. She was going to have to go back to some of the psychology textbooks in her apartment if she wanted the team to succeed. But it was going to be her team.
She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That—thank you. Seriously, Coulson, I really appreciate it."
He nodded at her. "You've got good instincts. I think you could do a lot of good as a leader."
Doing good. That had always been the mission, hadn't it?
In reality, she ended up submitting her team candidates on Thursday morning. For her weapons expert, she'd chosen either Lindsey Dubois or Rachel St. Claire. For her forensic biologist, she'd narrowed it down to either Michael Richardson or Claudia Jeong.
Friday afternoon, Coulson dropped by her office again, file folders in hand. "I've looked over your choices," he told her. "You can have Dubois, because Rachel St. Claire just got transferred to our DC office. And I recommend you pick Claudia, just because Michael and Caroline don't get along very well."
Well. That had been easier that she'd expected. "Thanks. So if I interview them and decide to stick with them, we can just...start?"
Coulson nodded. "It's all you from there."
Audrey grinned.
"You want me to go from weapons department to being the single weapons expert on a team?"
Lindsey Dubois sat opposite Audrey at her desk, raising an unsure eyebrow. Audrey frowned. "...Yes?" Something about the look on Dubois' face made her feel like that was the wrong answer. Even though technically, she was supposed to be the one running this meeting.
Lindsey considered. "It's more intensive work… there's a pay raise, right?"
Audrey nodded. "Yeah, uh, twenty percent. But you're right, it is more demanding. I think it'll be an effective team."
"Who else is joining?"
"So far? We have myself and Caroline Carmichael. I'm hoping we can get Claudia Jeong to join too."
"Oh, hey." Lindsey broke out into a grin. "Claudia was my roommate at the Academy. She's great. Really smart. You're putting her on forensics?"
"That's the plan. She'll work biological testing and tracking and from there, we can send Carmichael to execute missions. Once Claudia,and ideally, I, identify targets, you'll work with her to detain or eliminate them. More detaining than eliminating, if I can help it." Audrey bit her lip.
"I've never heard of an all-female tac team," Lindsey grinned. "I'm in. When do we start?"
From there, it was easy. Claudia followed Lindsey without much protest, and Caroline had no real choice once she'd been transferred. The first meeting was hell and their first mission stiff and formal, but once they'd begun to understand one another after a few missions, they started to develop trust in their teammates, and in Audrey, and that's when it all came together.
Coulson gave them an office area together, connected to a lab where Claudia spent most of her time. Now that they were an official team—Tac Team Q—they needed codenames. Caroline kept Ace, which she'd had prior to working under Audrey. Lindsey adopted Bombshell after her impressive work in diffusing a bomb in record time-not that she was able to flaunt it, due to the whole classified thing. Claudia really didn't need one since she spent all her time in the labs, but Lindsey decided to dub her "The Mortician" anyway, since she'd worked as a coroner prior to her assignment to their team.
But perhaps the worst name was the one given to her team. By midway through 2010, people had stopped calling them Tac Team Q. Instead, they'd started referring to them as the Aud Squad.
And as much as Audrey herself tried to discourage it, she was never able to prevent anyone from calling them that. Her dad had gotten The Howling Commandos, and she got the Aud Squad.
Nobody else on the team was a help in stopping it. Lindsey thought it was hilarious, Caroline couldn't bring herself to care enough, and Claudia rarely spoke.
Besides that, though, Lindsey and Audrey had hit it off early on. She wasn't able to tell them who her parents were, or about any of her...talents (powers? Audrey was never sure what to call them), but their bond reached deeper than coworkers. Lindsey would occasionally spend Friday nights with Audrey marathoning trashy TV. She gave her advice when it came to flirting with Josh at the bar after work one day.
Claudia and Caroline seemed to work well together too, since Caroline was… prickly, at best, and rarely wanted to talk to anyone while Claudia was almost always quiet. On days that were more focused on investigation rather than field work, Caroline could be found sitting in Claudia's lab with a book in hand while the scientist flitted around her between various priceless science equipment with names that took a minute to say outloud.
Caroline was undoubtedly still frigid, but she was less aggressive without need to be. Something inside her had calmed when the team started working together.
Coulson dropped by occasionally and at one point asked Audrey if she wanted to add more members to the team, but the four of them had already become one of the most effective tac teams S.H.I.E.L.D. had working under them.
"You're doing a good job here," he remarked once, surveying the room. "Doing a lot of good too."
2012
Audrey watched from inside as a jet connected to the runway and, with the magnetic landing pad, eventually stopped moving. The terminal had already been assembled, and the people inside were deplaning.
About ten minutes ago, they'd realized what Loki's plan was going to involve taking over Stark tower. It figured that he would pick one of the most densely populated areas on earth for the battle over humanity, but they couldn't change that. With her team on board, and whatever S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were left working on repairs, they were well on their way to preparing for the fight. Audrey knew that the time they were taking was giving Loki an advantage, but last time they'd fought unprepared, it hadn't gone well. They couldn't make that mistake anymore, not with this much at stake.
They didn't know what Loki was going to fight with, but they assumed it was going to be much stronger than brainwashed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
When Audrey caught sight of Lindsey rounding the corner, she barely had time to react before she was toppled in a hug. "What the hell, Audrey?" the woman mumbled into her ear. "You just disappeared. And you're Captain America's daughter? Why didn't you—I mean, I know there was the clearance thing, but still. And—what even is this thing?"
Audrey pulled away, a grin on her face. "I'll explain it later, everything later, but we're gonna have to get to work now."
Behind Lindsey, Audrey caught a glimpse of Claudia and Caroline.
"Where's my office?" Lindsey asked with a smile.
"You can head to the labs," Audrey delegated, pointing up to the glass window that had been shattered and was now just a giant hole in the lab's wall. "There's an elevator by that door. We need everything you can manage. Guns, grenades, if you can retool any of the weapons we have on board to make them more effective. Anything. Fair warning: Stark might drop by later and take some things for his suit without asking."
Lindsey's eyes had glazed over for a second as she realized that Stark meant Tony Stark, as in Iron Man. A moment later, she was back in focus. "I'm on it."
Claudia smiled at Audrey as she stepped up to her. "I assume you want me there too? Since I'm no help anywhere but the lab."
"Yeah," Audrey nodded. "Dr. Foster is working on tracking the cube but we need a biologist on board. If you could take any of the samples that were collected and try and get whatever information you can from those."
Claudia nodded, adjusting the bag she was holding on her shoulder before heading off.
Arms crossed over her chest, Caroline stepped up in front of Audrey. "What can I do?"
Audrey swallowed. "I know that it's not your area, not really, but if you could gather any military personnel on board and get them into shape as backup for the team that's going in, that would be great." She didn't mention that she was also on the team going in.
"I can try my best, but I don't promise I'll be nice." She sighed. "But I think you should send me in too. Maybe not as the main team but as backup. I'm of better use on the ground than here."
Caroline paused, waiting for a response.
Audrey considered. She was right; Caroline was one of their best weapons, and she would be more helpful on the ground. Still, someone had to lead the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and she wasn't sure how that was going to work.
Well, they would have Tony up high, and if he was able to scope the area for threats, Audrey would be able to instruct her. That could be a possibility. "I'm not really, uh, in charge up here. But I'll see what I can do."
Caroline nodded. "Where do I go?"
It wasn't Audrey who replied, though, it was Hill from behind her. "There's a training room on the second level that's available. I've already sent out a message for any field agents without an assignment to head there."
"Yes, ma'am," Caroline answered, turning away.
As she watched her go, Audrey felt the dread in her stomach begin to subside a little, making room for hope and determination.
She let out a long exhale. They were about to wade into a war where they didn't know who the enemy was. A war against a god, or all things.
But from the dust, S.H.I.E.L.D. had scrambled together, more determined than ever.
Audrey just hoped it would be enough.
Chapter Twelve: Where the Heart Is
Now she had a legacy—one everyone knew about, and she couldn't afford to fail. She couldn't be a disappointment, on top of everything else. She was in over her head here. Though things had felt so right before, when she'd saved Steve and fought Loki's brainwashed agents, it was largely due to something in her brain clicking. Putting the pieces together for her so that she could focus on hitting and running and blocking the tirade of fists.