A/N: Ok, so I know I said that I wouldn't be uploading until I got another review but it was just too tempting. This one's a long one and I hope you like it. Please read and review and I might consider uploading chapter 8.
Natasha and Clint walked into SHIELD HQ side by side. It's official name was SHIELD Headquarters, even though SHIELD's official base of operations was at the Triskelion in DC. HQ was located slightly down the street from Times Square, a prime location in the centre of New York. The building took the appearance of a regular office building, and since people walked in and out regularly, no one ever seemed to question it's existence.
There was a large fancy foyer with a high ceiling and marble floors. There was a desk on the left and hallways on the left and right along with various lifts and staircases. Agents in uniform walked around and several of them watched as the two very famous Agents moved in the direction of one of the lifts.
They went up several levels before the lift stopped and then got out and headed for the surveillance room Natasha had booked. Even in SHIELD the Agents have to book to use certain rooms. It was really strange but Natasha understood the system so she didn't really care.
Inside the surveillance room there were large monitors set into the wall. At the desk there was a control panel with a touch screen in the centre used to search the databank. Natasha sat down with Clint next to her and switched on the monitor.
Instantly the screens jumped to life with all different scenes from live footage. Natasha loaded the touch screen and brought up all the different footage of Phoenix. Screen 1 in the top left corner showed footage from San Francisco California the day Phoenix had escaped from the island. There was also footage from Los Angeles, Houston and Jacksonville.
"She's hit California, Texas and Florida," Natasha announced as she checked all the time stamps. "This kid's all over the place."
"All the cities that she's hit are highly populated so maybe she's thinking it will be harder for us to find her," Clint suggested. Thankfully he was no longer drunk or hung over which meant he could focus and wasn't partially brain dead. "But it's nearly impossible to tell with her because she's so unpredictable."
"Hmm," Natasha agreed. "Clint I need you to look up any suspicious activity that occurred in all of these cities on the days Phoenix was there. To narrow down the field cross correspond with the specific areas of the city where she was spotted."
"Am I looking for something in particular or do I just look for unsolved arson cases involving fire damage?" He asked taking the tablet off his partner and turning it on.
"Anything that jumps out at you," she turned back to the screens. "Leave San Francisco out of the search box though. Just humour me I'm working on a hunch."
"Ok then," Clint knew better than to argue with Natasha when she had an idea. It still didn't stop him from asking questions though. "What's your hunch?"
"Phoenix probably just landed in San Francisco and wasn't even planning to dock there. A chance arrival," Natasha explained animatedly. "But we know that she went to LA, Houston and Jacksonville for a reason. What we need to figure out is her reason for going there. That will get us closer to tracking her down."
Clint nodded and got to work while Natasha closely studied each frame from each security tape. They were mostly images from public places, like train stations and main streets. Natasha figured out that was how she was travelling. By train. Simple and efficient but easily traceable. It was kind of risky putting herself on the line like that, Natasha thought. She believed Phoenix was smarter than that. Unless she was doing it on purpose.
Natasha warily glanced over at Clint who was focusing all of his attention onto the tablet. She bit her lip and looked back to the screen. What Jarvis had said the other night, was it true? Did she have romantic feelings for Clint? But why would she fall for Clint? Why now? They've been partners for years. You don't just get romantic with someone all of a sudden, it doesn't work like that.
New York creeped into her mind without warning. She was desperate to get Clint back after she heard that he was taken by Loki and she didn't exactly handle things well. For a second, while she interrogated Loki, she had been exposed. It almost felt like she had stood naked in front of him. She had been compromised.
"Love is for children I owe him a debt."
She thought she'd been saying the truth but she knew that she'd lost her focus at that point. She had started blinking rapidly, because she knew that Loki was getting under her skin. In the end she had proven triumphant but he had gotten to her, and not many people could do that.
She wiped the thoughts from her mind and focused closer on the mission at hand. Natasha had to find Phoenix and fix the problem she had caused because of her idiocy.
"Hey Natasha I don't know if this is relevant but here's a pattern connecting the cities," Clint held up the tablet for her to see. "The day Phoenix was in LA a teenager went missing two streets away from where Phoenix was spotted. Houston Texas, another teenager is snatched from the very same train station Phoenix was in for three hours. And just yesterday a teenager from Jacksonville Florida is stolen out of her house by a gunman on the very same street that Phoenix was seen sitting at a bus station with binoculars. Coincidence?"
"Can't be. If it is, it's the biggest coincidence I've ever seen," Natasha decided. "Who were the kids?"
"Joshua Smith, Samuel Lidsdale and Isabella Mason. All 16 but aside from their age nothing else connects them," Clint handed the tablet to her and she began to search their records.
"There's not much here," Natasha concluded. "I doubt we'll be able to find a connection here. We need a new angle. Here take the stick."
She moved so Clint could sit down at the monitors and Natasha moved into the chair next to him and began to research a different file. Looking over the profile SHIELD had complied about Dr Blake she noticed that it was much more detailed than the one they created about Phoenix. It showed all of the achievements he'd received throughout his life.
"Our good old friend Doctor Blake actually has a medical degree and a science degree," Natasha read out from the file. "Born in 1955. He became a surgeon in 1984 and worked as a surgeon until 1990. Then he took up science and retreated to his family mansion on a private island."
"And pulled a freaking mad scientist act," Clint laughed at his own joke.
"Whoa wait a sec," Natasha found some more information further down the page. "In 2003 he briefly re-joined the medical profession for a period of six months. During this time he worked as a volunteer paediatrician. Paediatrician, Clint that's a children's doctor. How old would these kids have been in 2003?"
"About six," Clint replied.
"Alright the first kid was Joshua Smith," Natasha opened up his medical records and looked through them. "Treated for a broken arm in 2003, and have a guess who his doctor was."
"It wasn't," Clint shook his head.
"It was. Supervising Doctor was none other than Harold Blake," Natasha turned back to the tablet and pulled up the medical records of the next kid. "Samuel Lidsdale, went to the local Doctor's office for a bad case of eczema. Treated by Doctor Harold Blake."
"This is getting weird," Clint commented.
"Isabella Mason. Received a flu vaccination in 2003. Doctor that stuck the needle in was of course, Doctor Harold Blake," Natasha put down the tablet and swivelled her chair to face Clint. "Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that Phoenix isn't the only teenager out there with superpowers?"
"Ok, Phoenix is rounding up her little gang," Clint turned away from the screens. "But why? And how many other kids are there? We could be looking at something very serious here."
"It's a serious problem already Clint, we need to tell Fury about this. If we don't put a stop to this now then…" Natasha trailed off as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. On one of the screens, in red flashing letters was one word.
LIVE.
"Clint we've got live footage," Natasha moved like lighting and pulled her chair forward to be closer to the monitor controls. "Quick, where is she?"
Clint pulled up the camera location on the control screen. "Chicago Illinois," he replied. "Millennium Park, making her way East down Randolph Street past the Harris Theatre."
They watched Phoenix walk down the street wearing a hoodie and sunglasses. She walked straight, never stopping once and walked out of the frame as she left the camera's line of sight. "Whatever you do make sure you keep tracking her. Do not lose her," Natasha told her partner firmly.
After a few minutes she jumped back onto the screen. "At the intersection of North Columbus Drive and East Wacker Drive." Clint told her. "Heading up North Columbus Drive, she's just crossing the Chicago River. And now she's off the radar again."
Yet again Phoenix moved away from the cameras and out of sight. So they waited for her to pop up again. It took longer this time and Natasha wondered if Phoenix had given them the slip. But then she appeared. She didn't even wait for Clint to announce it.
"East Grand Avenue, going under the bridge that holds North Lake Shore Drive. Still heading East," Natasha watched her closely and thought to herself out loud. "Where is she going. If she keeps going east she'll walk into the harbour. Obviously she's after something."
The cameras were more frequent now so Phoenix only ever dropped off the radar for a few seconds. She continued to head down East Grand Avenue. She came to the intersection at Park Drive and kept going straight down East Grand Avenue.
"Nowhere else to turn now. Whatever she's looking for is on Navy pier," Clint stated the obvious.
"Why is she going to an amusement park?" Natasha wondered out loud again.
They watched as Phoenix walked in and surveyed her surroundings before walking off. She made sure her hoodie and headed towards a group standing underneath the Ferris Wheel. She put a hand in one pocket of her hoodie and Natasha recognised the bulge of a gun stashed in Phoenix's jumper.
She approached one teenage boy and put an arm casually around his shoulder. She whispered something into his ear and Natasha just knew that Phoenix would be jabbing a gun into his back. Phoenix led the boy away into a building and just like that they were out of sight.
"Clint pull up facial recognition and find out who she is kidnapping," Natasha barked orders at him and then put a hand to her earpiece radio. "It's Agent Romanoff, we've spotted Phoenix at Navy Pier in Chicago Illinois. We need to hurry we might not have much time."
The reply came quick. "Copy that Agent Romanoff I'm sending out our closest Agents right now. Stay where you are and keep an eye on her."
Agent Lawson received the call at about noon. He had just finished tailing a business man in Chicago when his S.O called and gave him the field assignment. He was to go down to Navy Pier and intercept a hostile who was seen kidnapping a teenager, and the one doing the kidnapping was a teenager as well. Agent Lawson didn't make any arguments though. Field work was field work.
He immediately got on his motorbike and headed to his assigned location. It didn't take long to get there and four agents were waiting for him outside the entrance. He was only a rookie agent so they were obviously in a hurry to take down their target if they were willing to put him on this assignment.
"Our mission is to go in there and neutralise the hostile known as Phoenix. She is female, 14 to 15 years of age. She'll be easy to spot. We would prefer if you took her down alive but if you have no other choice then take the shot," an older female agent instructed them. "We need to move quickly."
They didn't even have time for introductions, they just jumped straight into action and made their way through the entrance and towards Phoenix's location. Agent Lawson had mixed emotions of shooting at a teenager but if SHIELD said she was a threat then it was his job as a SHIELD Agent to take her down.
The back-up arrived just as the five agents reached the Ferris Wheel. Three SHIELD helicopters came in from the distance and made a circle formation above the agents on the ground, facing the building where Phoenix was reported to be.
An announcement by a man with a megaphone told civilians to vacate the area and for Phoenix to show herself. The five agents stood in a circular formation at the only entrance and exit of the building. Agent Lawson stood on the left, holding his gun up and aiming it at the double doors.
There was movement as the doors swung open and Phoenix stepped outside. She had pulled down her hoodie and held her hands behind her head in surrender. She walked forward slowly and sunk down to her knees and kept her eyes on the ground.
The older female agent that was in charge slowly walked forward and stood behind the girl. The agent frisked her from behind a pulled a gun from the pocket of her jacket. The agent removed the magazine and tossed the gun aside. Then she grabbed Phoenix's wrists and pulled a set of handcuffs off her belt and moved to put them on Phoenix.
That's when everything exploded.
Literally.
The Ferris Wheel caught alight and became a flaming inferno in a matter of seconds. People screamed from below it on the ground and from on the carriages that spun around the Ferris Wheel. The metal stabilising the wheel to the ground creaked and groaned.
There was a loud SNAP! as the wheel titled and then began to fall. The wheel fell slowly and crashed into a building, going straight through the centre of it and sliding across the pier. It still burned as an inferno until it slid into the water with a loud splash and half of it became submerged while the top half of it was still lit up like a bonfire.
Phoenix jumped into action and threw herself on top of the agent in charge. Agent Lawson and the other three moved forward and before the woman Phoenix was pinning down could fight back, Phoenix struck.
The girl caught fire faster than anyone could blink and put a hand on the woman's chest. When Phoenix stood back up the woman had stopped moving and had a giant singed hole in her chest.
Phoenix whirled around to face the other agents and Agent Lawson did what any other responsible human would've done in that situation.
He turned and ran away screaming.
While Agent Lawson dived for cover behind a chimichanga stand, the remaining three agents tried their best to take down Phoenix. However each time one of them had a shot they hesitated, and that was what brought their demise.
A dead body was thrown through the air and hit Agent Lawson across the face before collapsing in a pile of limp limbs next to him. He screamed again and clutched the handle of the umbrella on the chimichanga stand.
Phoenix heard the screams and walked around the stand, looking down at the screaming agent with confusion. He continued to scream so she grabbed his shirt and elbowed him in the face. He slumped to the ground unconscious and Phoenix heard sirens which meant that it was probably time to leave.
She just had some unfinished businesses to deal with first.
She found the boy she had come to collect and grabbed him by the back of his neck. "Remember what I told you. They are the enemy," she said to him and pointed at the circling helicopters. "Now watch the enemy burn."
She pushed him backwards and walked forward to the direct centre of the now abandoned amusement park, taking her stand directly below the helicopters. She looked up at them and a loud voice echoed around her. "Surrender and get down on the ground now or we will be forced to take you down!" They warned her.
"Not if I take you down first," she muttered to herself with a smile.
Phoenix held her arms stiff by her side and summoned the fire. She felt it's warmth circling around her arms. Slowly she raised her flame coated arms and aimed them in the direction of the helicopters. She felt it brewing at her palms and then the fire shot out from her hands and hit the first helicopter. The cockpit ignited and the entire inside of the helicopter caught alight. Phoenix preformed the same act on the other two helicopters. Each helicopter spun around and titled as their inhabitants attempted to stabilise their crafts while burning alive.
They each hit the ground like flies, one landing in the harbour and the other two crash landed in the streets, causing more screams to come from the civilians. There was no longer anyone else around but Phoenix knew it wouldn't be like that for much longer. It was time for them to move.
"I know what you can do," she said to the boy. "And we're getting out of here now. Fast."
The boy nodded in fearful understanding and bent down on his knees. Phoenix put a hand on his shoulder and they vanished in a blur.
Clint switched off the surveillance monitor with shaking fingers. Natasha sat ridged, not even blinking once. They saw everything from the Ferris wheel to the helicopters. Neither of them seemed to have any words to describe what they just witnessed.
"Find out who the boy she took was," Natasha told Clint.
The archer nodded and ran the boys image through a facial recognition system. They got a hit minutes later. "Marcus Winters," Clint checked his medical records and found what he knew he was going to see. "Admitted to hospital for appendicitis and his Doctor was Dr Blake."
"How many casualties from the attack?" Natasha's voice was quiet but firm.
"4 in each helicopter that's 12," Clint went through the maths. "Four out of five of our ground agents. Maybe twenty on the Ferris wheel. Thirty or so in the demolished building. We're looking at something around 65 fatalities and not to mention a lot of injured."
"Over 60 dead," Natasha repeated. "All in the space of 5 minutes."
"If we hadn't sent our guys in this wouldn't have happened," Clint sounded angry. "I don't care what Fury says this is our problem now and we are going to fix it. We can't let any more people die."
"I'm with you," Natasha agreed.
The only hope for stopping Phoenix now was the Avengers.