Forgive me for taking long; life drew me away and I was feeling a little off with writer's block syndrome. But I was cured (a little) when Captain America: Civil War Superbowl trailer came out! I have so many feelings about this, you probably have an idea because I know for sure that there are people screaming, dying, and crying over this. So many FEELS! Anyway, new chapter and new development with our little Avengers!
p.s. forgive my science talk, it is not to be taken seriously because my knowledge of all things scienc-y sucks.
xX 2oo9 Xx
"Aaaannd... viola!"
Clint stared at the weapon displayed before him, his eyes tracing the sleek form that tempted him to grab and wield. He could just imagine his fingers wrapped around the leather that held the bow ever so smoothly, the few strings that each held a different tight coiling to help with how fast, how far, how direct he wanted his arrows to go.
Oh, and the arrowheads...
"Clint?" a voice echoed around his head, bringing the archer back from eyeing the weapon with utmost appreciation. "C'mon Clint, don't start drooling on me now. You haven't even tried this thing yet?"
Without ever meaning to, he found himself raising an arm with his hand wiping across his lips. With his brain quickly catching up to his muscles, the older man froze before throwing a glare over to the person that was obviously at fault for his actions.
I laughed like a madman. Leaning against one of the tables so I wouldn't end up stumbling on my ass (and falling into something dangerous since this was an R&D lab, and I was pretty sure there was someone working on some chemical weapon project for agents to use on the field). My laughter bounced against the walls, and I quickly tried to stifle it, but it didn't help any when I saw the older man giving me an unimpressed look. For all things that involved bows and arrows, Clint's intense love for them was just borderline hilarious and a bit worrisome.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, tiny." the sandy-haired man rolled his eyes at me.
"Oh, man," I cackled. "I can't believe you actually thought you were drooling."
As the veteran agent watched me try and fail to calm my laughing fit, he narrowed his sharp eyes dangerous before loosening his facial muscles whilst a creeping (and most sinister) smile contorted across his previously scowling expression. The look made me lose all humor when I saw it because that look alone made me feel like I had just walked my sorry ass in the middle of a goddamn storm. Seeing as I had his undivided attention, Clint did not hold back in what he wanted to say to me.
"So how's your work-out?" he asked, innocence dripping from his voice that contrasted against the evil look on his face.
"It's good." I said, worried and puzzled.
"That's weird." Clint made a wide arc as he looked around the lab with fake nonchalance. "I heard from your personal trainer that you've been lagging behind from your exercising."
'Oh, God. Please don't tell me he's not thinking about—'
"Maybe me and 'Tasha can drop sometime later on," he drawled as he leaned casually back against the stool chair he was seated on, a terrifying smile spread across his lips. "We'll get you up and on your toes in no time."
I was white as a sheet when he finished with his not-so-subliminal threat in making my already harsh training session into something out of Dante's Inferno. The older man knew I was terrified of the red-headed Russian, and for him to be dangling the Black Widow with the promise of an utter beat-down, I shuddered at the scary thought to see that woman come inside a gym dressed to kill me on the mats.
"You know I was just playing... right?" I squeaked, pathetic and small.
Before Clint could snap back a witty retort, the doors at the entrance of the lab hissed open. Clint and I looked over to find a breathless low-level agent looking around the lab until he spotted us—or rather, when he spotted the master marksman sitting across from me. I sat up straight on my chair, alert and waiting for whatever news would spill out of the other agent's mouth.
"What's up?" the archer asked, his body tense and just as alert as mine was.
"Coulson's requesting back-up," the nameless agent said, flicking his head towards the entrance behind him. "We lost contact with Romanoff near Odessa—"
That was all the agent had to say because Clint was on his feet and immediately storming straight for the door. Startled, the agent stammered before quickly retreating from the lab to go after the sandy-haired man. Bewildered and a little worried, I snapped back to the weapon still sitting on my work table then quickly gathered the equipment into a special case. Running out of the R&D lab to catch up to the two agents, I dodged and weaved through the people that filtered in and out of SHIELD HQ, calling after the archer when I spotted his head amongst the crowd. Clint didn't stop, but he slowed down enough for me to catch up to him.
"Take this." I handed him the case. "Its got a few extra arrowheads for tight spots, another to get someone hiding in a corner, and probably a couple of shrapnel bombs to take out a flock of birds."
"Thanks, kid." he nodded before picking up his pace, leaving me behind in the crowded hallway.
"Good luck, Clint." I muttered, watching my friend leave to find his partner and closest confident.
The next few days, after making a couple of trips to keep close to the people in charge of communications, I was relieved to hear the report that Clint brought back his friend. Romanoff was hospitalized after sustaining a gunshot wound that shot right through her gut. The slug wasn't aiming to kill the Black Widow, rather, it had been aiming to hit the nuclear scientist she had been assigned to extract quietly from the Iran border.
With solemn silence, I headed back into the lab to get to work. Spending countless hours, sleepless nights, and barely leaving the R&D lab for anything, I remained inside the department until I had finally completed the task I had set myself out to do after the news of Clint's retrieval of his injured friend.
Almost a month later since the incident, after Romanoff was taken off the bench when the doctors finally gave her the green light, the red-headed Russian found a new bullet-proofed tactical suit waiting inside her locker. Along side the sleek black cat suit were a couple of electrical stingers that strapped around the wrists, a few nasty-looking knives that blended into her suit, and small yet effectively powerful handguns.
xX 2o12 Xx
"The Tesseract is missing?!"
My mind was weird. As a self-defense mechanism to prevent myself from falling into hysterics, my brain shot to the next big thing to keep me distracted and not have a total meltdown. Thus, after the terrifying announcement that I would be in close proximity (or in close range if I was going to be blunt) with Dr. Banner, my brain automatically latched onto the last words of Romanoff's statement. It was like my brain was eating whatever interesting things that came along while simultaneously pooping out junk that wasn't needed... (that was the grossest analogy ever).
Brief and to the point, Romanoff began to recount the events that transpired for the past couple days when one of the SHIELD bases collapsed after the arrival of a threatening individual who went by the name of Loki. The name made me think about the reports and files I read about what had happened to a New Mexico small town, and there was a some guy who shared the same name of a Norse God involved with the whole incident.
Coincidence? Not in SHIELD's line of work.
"What about Dr. Selvig? Or the rest of the team?" Were they okay? was a question I couldn't bring myself to ask.
Clint had been transferred to Selvig's team after his joint mission with Romanoff in Budapest.
I felt tingles from being stared down by the Black Widow, but I pulled a brave face and stood firm, wanting to know anyway. Clint was one of the few friends I had, and Dr. Selvig was a brilliant man who wasn't all that bothered about working alongside a person twice his junior (unlike some I knew who still treated me like I was a wild-child handling delicate, fragile china teacups). Her focused eyes flickered over my head easily enough, making me want to look over what was it that caught her attention, before she snapped those green hues back to me.
I felt something in the air that suggested that there was someone standing directly behind me.
"Dr. Selvig and Agent Barton have been compromised," came her cool reply. "You'll hear more from Commander Hill."
My eyes involuntarily closed, unwanted images of an injured archer and a battered, old civilian just barely transitioning into SHIELD lifestyle came across the closed lids. I pinched the space between my eyes, just above the bridge of my nose, and breathed in carefully. Without warning, a large, warm palm settled over one of my shoulders and offered support by giving a light squeeze. After a moment, I gathered up enough courage to come back to the messy reality I had signed myself up for since meeting Coulson.
"Alright," I muttered. "Let's get going."
Romanoff stepped aside, allowing me to pass her to head inside as people were beginning to lock down in preparation of the Helicarrier's take off. As I went ahead, Steve and Dr. Banner stopped to watch the people tie down the multiple aircrafts on top the colossal ship while there was an alarm that was signalling for something. Signaling for what, however, the two men had no idea.
"Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe." Romanoff said, making the two men look around in new found bewilderment.
"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked, his voice drifting into awe as he stepped towards the edge of the ship to get a better glimpse.
"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" a dry laugh escaped Dr. Banner as if he found the idea incredibly laughable. In a terrifying way, it was.
A huge whirring noise rose in volume, making Steve and Dr. Banner pause as they finally caught sight of what looked to be some sort of giant fan that began to come to life. The seawater around it splashed and splintered in the air, sending small spays of water that they could barely feel as the vortex water disappeared the faster the propellers went. Trailing from the one before them, their eyes drifted further ahead to the side to find another giant coaxial propeller causing a stir in the ocean.
The air around them spiraled out of control, causing jackets and blazers to billow wildly and hair to wave like a meadow field being blown by a tornado. They felt the ground beneath them quake as it slowly rose from the ocean, seawater spilling from places that it had easily filtered through from within the ship. Steve's heart felt like it was going to burst in his chest, the high adrenaline thrumming through his veins singing like it had when he first stepped out of the container with his new body.
It was amazing.
"Oh, no," Steve almost missed Dr. Banner's grim smile. "This is much worse!"
"Whose idea was this?" Steve said out loud, still watching the ship rise from the ocean.
He remembered, what seemed a few short years ago (and it technically kind of was in his case), standing inside a Stark EXPO with Bucky, watching Howard Stark proclaim that the world would be seeing themselves literally flying high with their cars...
And he was standing on top of a flying ship! Had Howard's son, a man he had yet to be introduced to, come up with thi—
"You already had the privilege of meeting the person who created all this, Rogers." Romanoff informed as she gestured them to follow her.
He watched her retreating back, his brows furrowed in confusion. The doctor beside him shared an also equally puzzled look.
"I did?" he called after her.
Romanoff threw a smirk over her shoulder while still heading for the nearby entrance.
"You were sitting right next to her."
… and there went his ten bucks.
...
Inside a mostly deserted women's locker room, I zipped up the dark blue coveralls over my bellybutton before tying the sleeves around my waist that simply left my torso exposed. With only a black white beater that clung to my slender frame, I quickly pull my hair back in a quick (slightly messy) bun before pulling my working boots and then grab for the items left on my bench as I changed clothes.
I was quick to reach the main Bridge, people bustling with activity as they worked tirelessly in tracking down the mysterious Loki who held the Tesseract, and a couple of our people, hostage. I gave a quick nod to Jackals, who was watching the whole room with a blank look, before turning to the Director. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Steve and Dr. Banner standing at the other side of the oval-shaped table that served as a briefing for whatever information and updates that would pop up on the screens.
"Agent Connor," Fury greeted me with a curt nod. "What do you have for us?"
I pulled up the tablet that was given to me by a passing lab technician, and with a simple flick of my wrist, the schematics and files on the tablet flicked in a holographic image that hovered over the table for everyone to see. With my fingers locating a nearby touch screen on the table, the holograph responded accordingly to my scoping. When I found what I was looking for, I stopped.
"From the notes that were left behind by Dr. Selvig, this thing runs on gamma radiation." I turned to Coulson. "Do you have anything so far?"
"We got our eyes and ears through every wireless accessible cellphones, laptops, and security feeds we can get our hands on for any matching descriptions for our guy." Coulson replied, standing a little ways from the silent Jackals.
"That's still not gonna be enough to find them in time." Romanoff said, kneeling beside a computer with Clint's image displayed. I bit my bottom lip before quickly turning back to the matter.
I had to keep my head cool. The less I panicked over things that couldn't be helped, the faster we went in finding the person responsible for Clint and Dr. Selvig's disappearance. Swallowing back the anxiety thrumming through me when I turned to the other doctor in the room, I addressed the older man, "Dr. Banner?"
The older man, who had been standing off the side like a forgotten bystander, looked away from the holograph and turned to me.
"Do you have any suggestions on narrowing the field for us in tracking this down?" I gestured to the Tesseract image floating placidly above the table.
Giving another quick scan of the holograph, the doctor began to remove his blazer, walking around the table until his voice broke through the quiet.
"How many spectrometers does SHIELD have access to?" Banner asked, looking at me as he settled the worn coat over a seat.
"More people than the Director met in the entirety of his life." I quipped, falling into another fail safe when I was nervous: sarcasm. My body's natural defense mechanism. "And that's a lot."
To my surprise, the corner of Banner's lips quirked at the corners before sobering up. I almost winced at the feeling of Fury's gaze boring holes at the back of my head. Hell, I could even feel the burn of it.
"Call every lab you know. Tell them to set their spectrometers on the roof so I could calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on the cluster recognition." Banner paused and looked around the room. "Is there a place where we can get started?"
Turning to Fury, the man gave his silent consent and I returned my gaze back to the gamma ray expert.
"If you can follow me, Dr. Banner." I said as I walked past him, feeling him following close behind as we passed two guards posted by a nearby entrance.
"You're gonna love it, doc." Romanoff said from behind us. "It's got all kinds of toys."
I continued to lead us both down the hall until we reached a staircase. "Down here."
Reaching the Helicarrier's lab, the doors hissed open when it sensed our approach and we entered inside the cool, bright room with viewing screens, tablets, tools, work tables, and computers at our disposal. I gestured for him to take a seat on one of the computers while I took another one (one a little far away and closer to the door for just in case).
A comm attached to my ear spoke up, and I pressed a button on the side of little gadget so that the speakers I installed in several spots inside the lab would allow Banner to hear it, too.
"We're sending the spectrometers through."
"Okay then," Banner said as he glanced at me. "Let's get started, Agent Connor."
"Lets." I agreed before letting my fingers dance across the keyboards.
…
Hours later, the door hissed open and the noise breaks me out of the concentration I had focused on with the growing spectrometers that helped scope out a unique gamma ray pattern that would lead us closer in finding the Tesseract. Standing awkwardly at the door was Steve Rogers, holding two mugs in his hands as he looked around the lab while heading towards the computers where me and Banner spent the last couple hours on.
I pulled away from the screen, my fingers aching for the need to take a break from the all the typing, touch-screen scribbling, and just simply being in constant motion. I heard Banner join my table, thinking the same idea when I saw him wring his hands in a futile effort to wave away the pain in his digits. Steve offered a crooked smile towards us, holding out mugs of coffee for us to take.
"Thought you guys might be a little thirsty, and I hear that people around this time like coffee better than they like juice." he said, a little bashful that I felt my heart grow from how thoughtful he was.
"Thanks, man." I smiled, grabbing a mug and watching as Steve pulled out some cream and a couple packets of sugar. I took two creams and two sugars while Banner didn't take any of them, preferring his coffee black.
"That's very kind of you, Rogers. Thank you." Banner said, courteous and kind.
The more hours I spent with Banner, the more I felt a little relaxed after nothing had happened. We exchanged a few words, pointing out what could possibly be a lead for our search for the glowing cube, and helping each other with whatever resources we could think of to make our little global search for the missing Tesseract (and my friends) go faster. The doctor wanted to be out of here just as much as everyone, including myself, wanted him to. It was sad, and I felt like a total asshole, but I couldn't help my flight instincts edging around when the older man came a little too close for comfort.
It only made me feel worse when Dr. Banner seemed to catch on by keeping his distance, never staying in my space for more than a few seconds.
"So, how's it going so far?" Steve asked, looking at our screens with a dubious face. "Those green blotches are a good sign... right?"
I couldn't stop myself from smiling at his attempts to figure out the alien technology he tried to read. The big guy had a long way to go before he was actually ready to learn how to use Google and handle a smartphone. I almost wanted to laugh right there at the picture my mind conjured of Captain America failing to text because of his too big digits.
"Those," Dr. Banner looked at the screen. "Are just normal low-level gamma rays we crossed out for possible locations."
"We're trying to find random spikes of gammas that reach to high, dangerous levels." I sipped my coffee. "The problem is that they come and go too quickly before we can zone in on it properly. It'll take a couple days, unless the spikes last long enough, for us to have proper coordinates."
"Jeez." Steve muttered from beside me as he stared at the screen.
Both Banner and I hummed in agreement.
At that moment, the comm in my ear buzzed to life, almost causing me to spill the coffee in my hand. Quickly depositing the mug on a nearby table surface, I pressed against my ear piece.
"Connor," I spoke up while staring blankly at the area ahead.
"We got a hit on the satellite facial recognition." Jasper Sitwell's voice cuts through. "Sixty-seven percent—wait! Seventy-nine...!"
Hurrying past the two men, I reached for a nearby viewing screen and made quick work by tapping the keys to switch the screen into a live video feed. The two men closed in from behind me, watching intently as I finally opened a new tab to reveal the live feed that the others were no doubt watching from the main area of the Helicarrier.
A man with dark, slicked-back, shoulder-length hair walked past the security camera. His pale skin almost glowed from the street lamps that illuminated the dark night that surrounded him. He was looking about, scanning where he was, and I almost written him off as some sort of tourist getting separated from his group and guide... until I saw his inhumanely bright, green eyes glimmering in the dark.
"Loki," I breathed out, not having realized my lungs had momentarily stopped working.
"Where is he?" Steve asked, his voice low.
The all-American soldier's boyish bashfulness disappeared so fast it almost made me think that this guy had two different personalities: one was Steve and the other was the Captain. Standing beside me was not the man I had met on the Quinjet, but the formidable soldier from the old second World War. That man was prepared for battle.
"Stuttgart, Germany. There's an opening gala at the local museum." Sitwell said before adding. "He's not exactly hiding."
"Captain." Steve, Dr. Banner, and myself looked to the entrance of the lab to find Fury standing there. His legendary art of sneaking inside places without alerting people well known. "You're up."
With a tight nod, the tall blond threw one last glance towards me before heading out the lab with Fury (and Natasha, all suited up) in the lead.
"Here we go, then." Banner murmured from beside me, his coffee cold and forgotten.