Chapter 3 A Friend
"There's a heat signature about thirty feet to your right," Felicity said into her headset. She was sitting in a van with another agent who was driving and keeping a lookout. Clint had gone out to track the copycat archer, which they had lured to an empty apartment room. "He's outside the building. Third floor and seems to be non-moving on the fire escape."
The night was relatively calm and quiet. Felicity wasn't worried; she had been out on the field before. Her nerves were calm, and so were her technical skills. The only thing she was focused on was catching the copycat archer.
"Hang on, there's someone coming up towards the van."
A dark figure had stepped into the drivers' view. Felicity glanced at the screen and saw that there was indeed a presence about five feet from their van. A breath caught in her throat when the figure marched towards them. He was buff, tall, and carried a gleaming silver sword. In his other hand was a gun.
The agent honked his horn and took off backwards. Immediately, he switched gears and accelerated straight at the figure. This person jumped and disappeared from Felicity's point of view. She kept one eye on the monitor. "He's on top of the van," she exclaimed. The driver instantly braked, which threw the person to the ground.
"What is going on?" Clint's voice hissed from the earpiece.
"We have a problem!" the driver shouted, turning the steering wheel frantically. The person had gotten up and started shooting at the van and its tires. The front lights of the car went out, engulfing them in darkness. "I can't see him!"
Felicity had a gun in one hand ready. "Hold on." She pressed a few keys on the monitor. Suddenly, the entire parking lot was filled with floodlights. The man was clad in black clothing and was still shooting at the van, but he was now visible. The driver made an attempt to back the van into the person.
Unfortunately, this figure had acted quickly. He aimed a shot at the side mirrors, effectively destroying their peripheral vision. The other agent got out his gun and tried to shoot too.
"There's someone attacking us," Felicity said again, ducking low in her seat. "It's definitely not the archer. Send for help."
When the firing stopped, Felicity lifted up her head. The agent in the car was breathing rapidly with a white face. Felicity tried to glance out the window but did not spot the attacker. The agent gave her a slight nod of the head before putting away his gun.
"Why are you putting your gun away?" Felicity almost snapped. "Keep it out."
"Calm down, Smoak," he grumbled. "I got him."
Before either could say anything else, an arm broke through the driver's window seat and stabbed through the agent's temple with his sword. Felicity screamed in shock and tried to shoot at the attacker.
The figure, however, had ducked again after killing the other agent. The doors could not open, but Felicity was not going to be a sitting duck. She had to escape. One glance at the monitor told her that the figure was still on the driver's front end of the car. She was about to exit from the other side, but realized this person could easily shoot her when running away.
As the figure made an attempt to reach in through the driver's window again, Felicity darted out from the back and ran in the direction facing the driver's side. The attacker's back was turned and searching the van. Picking up her guns, Felicity dashed towards a residential car and hid behind it.
It seemed to work, since the attacker thought she went in the opposite direction. Felicity let out a sigh before she realized that her earpiece had fallen off.
With a shock, Felicity realized that the car she was hiding behind was moving. Without any external (or internal) forces, the car slid away with loud squeaking until it revealed Felicity squatting on the ground. The dark figure was standing in the open, exposed, with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. With another wave of his hand, the car flew in the air and crashed into a building. It burst into flames.
"Felicity Smoak!" a familiar but muffled voice shouted. Another wave of his hand caused the flaming car to soar through the air back at Felicity. She moved out of its path but kept her eyes on the figure.
"Who are you and what do you want?" she yelled.
The figure unsheathed his sword again and started to march towards her. Felicity's guns flew out of her grasp. Now defenseless, she backed away slowly with an expression of fear.
The man sent a piece of shrapnel crashing into Felicity's legs, causing her to crumple to the ground. She could not see the face of the attacker, for he wore a black mask and covered all parts of his body save his eyes. However, Felicity glared into those eyes as he raised his sword.
Before Felicity could react, a flash of red hair jumped the figure. Natasha stabbed him in the shoulder and disarmed him before she was thrown off. The knife she had embedded in him was still stuck in his shoulder, which seemed to slow him down. The figure cried out in pain, but kept trying to fight Natasha with his fists.
Regaining her senses, Felicity crawled from her position to the fallen sword. She got to it in time as the sword started to wiggle and whirl at Natasha's direction.
After what seemed like an eternity, the figure decided to retreat and dashed into the darkness. Limping slightly, Felicity got up and headed towards Natasha, who was sporting a nasty bruise on her cheek.
"Alright?" Natasha asked, checking her phones and watches.
"Alive."
"You let the archer get away," Clint yelled when they were back in headquarters. "The lights alerted him and allowed him to escape."
"In case you didn't notice, there was an attack. An agent died," Felicity shot back, red in the face. She had clenched her fists into a ball.
"Calm down, both of you," Fury roared, putting his hand on the table. "We need to deal with this like responsible, mature agents. You two need to control your emotions."
Felicity crossed her arms but said nothing. Clint turned away. Natasha, who was sitting beside him, rolled her eyes.
"Fury, it can be certain that this new guy does not work with the archer. He came out of nowhere and attacked from the east. But what's strange about this attacker is he managed to move a convertible with telekinesis."
"That's impossible. Such a thing doesn't exist," Clint commented with an inhaled breath.
"After meeting two gods and battling aliens, you still don't believe in the impossible?" Tony Stark walked into the room, puffing out his chest slightly. The arc reactor beneath his shirt glowed a faint blue. He tapped his chest, as if to make sure it was still attached, and relaxed in a chair.
"Felicity, this is Tony Stark," Natasha introduced, being civil. "Felicity Smoak."
"How do you do? By the way Fury, were you going to inform us why my vacation was cut short and I was assigned to come here? When I say assigned, I meant forcibly dragged by SHIELD agents."
"There has been a new threat identified, and we need you here," Fury said grimly. "But that is not the issue at hand this moment."
"Well isn't this new threat the supposed new villain?" Tony raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair. "Telekinesis… now that is a force we have not reckoned with."
"It's true, we both witnessed the guy moving objects with a wave of his hand," Natasha insisted.
"Interesting, so this new villain has a connection to the case in Alaska that you want us to visit. Objects moving on their own. Barton, you think one of those telekinetic people could stop your arrows in midair?"
"Stark, I'd appreciate if you kept your commentary to the side."
"We are actually discussing the archer case, and the outcome of tonight's events," Clint replied Tony coolly.
Feeling a little bit confused and small in this group's dynamic, Felicity raised her hand for a moment. "Okay, I would just like to say something. If you would please stop talking over each other," she added, feeling like she was about to ramble again. "Before the computers in the van were destroyed, I locked the satellite onto the heat signature from the building we were targeting. I programmed the satellite to follow the archer automatically. If we are done arguing about this new villain or how I let the archer escape, I would certainly love to see if I can trace the signal to the archer's current location."
The eyes on Felicity stared at her with burning intensity that Felicity wanted to cringe.
"Well Agent Smoak, I would like you to immediately recover this information," Fury said slowly. He cleared his throat. "At once."
"Yes sir."
A few hours later, Felicity sat in one of the rec rooms with a cup of tea. Exhaustion was starting to appear on her features. That night's event had taken its toll on everybody, it seemed. However, seeing that man lift the car and throw it without a physical touch freaked Felicity out. It was not explainable by science. It made her uncomfortable.
"Hey, would you care for a drink?"
"Oh, hi." Natasha had appeared in the room, wearing the same clothes as the fight from earlier. "No thank you, I don't drink anymore. I mean, I don't drink alcohol. Of course I drink milk or tea or cocoa…" Felicity trailed off without even bothering to cover up her ramble.
"Bummer," Natasha said at the doorway. "Now I'll have to go to Stark's on my own, possibly have to babysit a bunch of grown men."
"Thank you," Felicity said suddenly, glancing upwards. "For helping me out there. I didn't get a chance to get introduced to you properly."
"Natasha Romanov. I was doing another assignment at that time," Natasha said carefully. She reached over to Felicity and shook her hand.
"I'm glad you were, otherwise I don't know what would have happened to me."
"We are lucky to have you here with us. Felicity Smoak, you are a valuable tool to SHIELD. Such a shame that you don't have great teammates."
Felicity cocked her head to the side. "I thought Barton was one of your teammates?"
Faking a cough, which was very obvious, Natasha rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, I can live with him. I can work with all of them fine. That's what happens after a while, you find the right people to work with and it falls into place."
Blinking, Felicity immediately thought of Oliver and Diggle. Something got caught in her throat. "Well, I think I'm getting the hang of how things work around here."
"You've got a friend here, just so you know." Natasha hesitantly turned to the door. "And thanks."
"For what?"
"You got to the sword before the sword got to me. You're always thinking on your feet. That's a good quality to have out there. Perhaps you were meant to be out in the field instead of behind a desk."
Felicity almost guffawed. "While that's…. possible… that won't happen in the near future. I can guarantee that."