Happy Tuesday, Readers!
First of all I have to apologise for the late update, I know I said I would update on the 26th but I've been working like almost every day and I haven't had time at all to update
Also, thank you to the new followers and the new reviewers. Reading those reviews made me smile, so thank you: Featherblue17 and AppropriateLlama! Now, on with the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters that may be use or any Marvel storylines or arcs.
Claimer: I only own the character Elizabeth Jones (Lowri Jones and any other names she uses) and her story past, present and future.
Recap
Lowri took out her earpiece and slid it into her pocket, she pulled herself from the truck and looked back at Maria.
"Maria, I'm going to start the search." Lowri said, she jumped down from the truck and began making her long journey back into the collapsed tunnel.
In no time at all, there was a team of agents working with her to aid in the rescue effort which took all night. Somehow, fires had started but Lowri could easily deal with those.
The big machines were brought in to move the fallen earth out of the way and luckily there wasn't that many people still trapped underneath because Lowri had called the evacuation early on.
That night was long, she worked well into the early hours of the next morning before she found herself back in S. H. I. E. L. D. HQ with a cup of coffee in her hand and she stood in Nick's office, standing in front of the window, having had no sleep whatsoever.
Phil was sitting comfortably on the couch just across from Nick with Maria beside him, all three organising the launch of the helicarrier. Once Maria stood up to finalise the details and left, Nick looked over at Lowri.
Lowri saw the look through the window and her stomach churned with anticipation. She clutched the cup of coffee tighter in her hand and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
She knew what was coming.
"I want to initiate the Avengers Initiative." Nick said carefully. Lowri turned from the windows to look at him. "Or, something as close to it as we can." Phil looked at Nick too, "Loki can't be stopped with bullets, we've seen that. We need something bigger." Nick looked over at Lowri, "Are you in?"
"Yes." Lowri said, the memories of the night before were still fresh in her memories as she took three steps towards the table with the plans, she had changed into some fresh clothes early that morning but that had not got rid of the dirty rubble feeling on her skin. "He ruined my tea."
Phil let out an uncontrollable laugh and then sobered up when he saw Nick narrow his eye at him.
"So, you want in because he ruined your tea, not because he's threatened to disrupt the world's peace?" Phil asked.
Lowri shrugged her shoulders and moved to sit beside Phil, still sipping her coffee.
"Agent Coulson, I want you to get hold of Agent Romanoff and inform her she's going to approach Doctor Banner. The Tesseract emits small traces of gamma radiation and since he's the expert, I want him brought in." Nick said, he slid over a file on his desk. "And you're to get in touch with Mr Stark. Do whatever you can to get hold of him, breach his security if you have to." He slid another file over. "Take these."
"Sir." Phil replied, he got to his feet, crossed to Nick's desk and picked up the files. "Agent Romanoff is still on her mission with the Russians. Shall I call her off?"
"Yes. This takes priority." Nick said.
"Sir." Phil said again and then he left the office.
"You and I need to talk about an old friend of yours." Nick said slowly. Lowri looked back over at him with a determined look. "Shall we invite him onto the team?"
"That's up to him." Lowri said, "Ask him and see what he says, but he'll probably want in. Steve's used to fighting, that's what he believes he was put onto the earth for." Lowri added.
"I want you to go to him. Explain what happened and about the mission coming up." Nick said.
Immediately, Lowri shook her head in silent disagreement. She simply couldn't walk up to Steve and talk to him the way Nick wants her too.
"No. Ever since he woke up, I haven't been to see him again. I can't." Lowri said quickly.
"You need to speak to him again." Nick said, "It's not fair on the poor man."
"It's not fair on me either." Lowri snapped, "I was happy mourning for him. Maybe I was finally coming around to him being gone."
"But now he's back." Nick said slowly, "You two need to have another sit down, without whisky, and talk things over."
"Yeah well, not now." Lowri said. She looked away from Nick, "There's too much going on right now for us to worry about something like that, we just have to get over it."
Nick leant back in his chair, not letting his eyes leave her. He was thinking of another way around it.
"I'll talk to him and I'll bring him on board with the mission." Nick said slowly.
Lowri nodded her head in agreement and she sat up straighter.
"Good. I'm going to go home and rest, I'm exhausted." She said, she stood up quickly. "I know you want me to speak with him, Nick, but it's so hard to even think that he's alive." Lowri said.
She left his office and headed up to her own to grab her things, then she headed down to the reception and left the building.
Her DC flat is about a twenty-minute walk away from the Triskelion and normally, she'd drive. But because everything was happening so quickly, it was clogging her mind so the walk really helped by clearing her mind, giving her time to think it all over.
Two days after the base in the Mojave Desert fell, one of the helicarriers was launched into the sea and on it was members of S. H. I. E. L. D. Those who had been invited to become part of the Avengers Initiative was making their way on board in dribs and drabs.
Lowri was already on board, overseeing the cargo below as a simple job to keep her mind occupied away from the impending task she had to complete.
"You can store those boxes on top of the bottled water, just make sure you tie them down." Lowri said, she checked the boxes of sterile gloves off the list and looked up before consulting her extensive list again.
There were some odd things on the list but they weren't too sure how long they'd be in the air for.
"Ma'am, what about those containers?" an agent asked, pointing to a large pile of clear containers holding medical supplies.
"Strap them down and leave them there." Lowri replied.
While Lowri was completing her task, Agent Hill took charge of the lower deck, leading the launch.
"All engines operating." Agent Hill began, she paced back and fore with her eyes catching on everything the agents around her on the computers did. "S. H. I. E. L. D. Emergency protocol 193.6 in effect, we are level, sir." Agent Hill reported, turning to Director Fury, stood in his circle of monitors.
"Good. Let's vanish." Director Fury replied, he nodded once at Agent Hill before turning from the beautiful view of the blue sky and turned to face the two men that had just entered the bridge and was looking around curiously.
"Engage retro-reflection panels." Agent Hill ordered, placing her hands on her hips and strode down the path once more.
"Gentlemen." Director Fury said to the two men who had a nervous mood about them both. He approached the blonde-haired man first, the newly awoke Super Soldier.
As he approached, Steve pulled a wad of crumpled notes out of his pants and offered Director Fury a ten dollar note, Director Fury took the note and smiled. Steve wordlessly looked around him, taking in every bit of this new technology filled world.
"Doctor, thank you for coming." Director Fury said as he turned to welcome Doctor Banner.
"Thanks for asking nicely." Doctor Banner said, he had a nervous look about him but he shook Director Fury's hand. "So, uh, how long am I staying?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the wind." Director Fury replied swiftly.
"Where are you with that?" Doctor Banner asked, he looked at Director Fury but he was redirected to Agent Coulson, who was more than eager to answer.
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Agent Coulson said.
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Agent Romanoff added. She was crouched low and was looking at one of the computers, detailing information on Agent Clint Barton.
"You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Doctor Banner asked as he stripped off his jacket.
"How many are there?" Director Fury asked quickly.
"Call every lab you know. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and to calibrate them for gamma rays." Doctor Banner instructed as he looked from Director Fury to Agent Coulson. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm, basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?" Doctor Banner asked.
"Agent Romanoff, could you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please?" Director Fury asked, he turned to her and she smiled.
Agent Romanoff shot him a knowing look as she walked past him. "You're gonna love it, Doc. We've got all the toys." She added as she led Doctor Banner out of the room.
"This is Agent Jones, normally she's a bit more welcoming but recently she's been distracted." Came a familiar voice.
Lowri stopped in her tracks and looked up from the tablet in her hands, she spied Nat standing in front of her with Doctor Bruce Banner standing just beside Nat.
"Hi, again." Doctor Banner said, he narrowed his eyes at her and she smiled.
"We've met before, Nat, a few years back in Harlem." Lowri said, she smiled knowingly at Doctor Banner. "It's good to see you again, I'm glad that you've kept out of trouble."
"I agree." Doctor Banner said, smiling warmly at her.
Nat led Doctor Banner away but before she did, she gave Lowri a knowing look.
Lowri continued on into the bridge and headed for Nick straight away, she passed over the tablet.
"Everything is locked down there, but, don't shoot me if a box of animal crackers escaped. I think one of the agents decided to hide it so he can have snacks at night." Lowri said as she passed over the tablet.
"Well, we can't hunt him down for that." Nick said after he glanced at the list. He put the tablet down on the table and looked up. "We've got that simulation room set up for you too, you know I don't like it when you set fire to my helicarrier."
"Your helicarrier?" Lowri asked teasingly. "Alright, thanks. I might go test it now, there's not a lot else we can do while we wait."
"You've still got those reports to go through." Nick reminded her, Lowri waved them off and shrugged her shoulders, she reached for the tablet and scanned through her to-do list of numerous reports.
"They're non-priority." Lowri replied, her eyes read the screen less than eagerly and she inwardly groaned at the amount of them.
"And you've got those transfer reports to finalise." Nick added. Lowri pulled a face at his words.
"They're also non-priority." Lowri said, "Anything that is nothing to do with this guy with a fish fork is non-priority."
"Fine. I'm pretty sure that someone has to deal with the clean-up of the base." Nick added, he smirked knowingly.
"Well, I think I'll leave that one to you, Nick." Lowri said, she looked up from the tablet and smiled. "I'm the one that started the search and pulled a dozen agents from under the rubble, I deserve a little rest."
"You had your coffee." Nick replied.
Lowri rolled her eyes at Nick and looked up at the ceiling of the bridge with a sigh. Her back was beginning to ache, a sign that she needed a long rest.
"Coffee is not enough to recover from something like that." Lowri laughed, she picked up the tablet and scrolled through the reports she had to go through.
"To recover from what?" Steve asked as he neared Nick and Lowri. Both looked up at him quickly. Lowri felt slightly startled at his sudden appearance, she had forgotten how stealthy he can be.
Lowri dropped her gaze back down to her tablet quickly and she continued scrolling, this is the first time they've seen each other since she gave him her necklace and for some unknown reason, she felt nervous around him.
"From digging underground to rescue agents." Nick said, looking up at Steve. "Lowri here, she spent the entire night about two days ago leading a search mission when one of our bases collapsed."
Lowri looked up and felt hotness in her cheeks when she saw that Steve was looking at her.
"Ah, it was nothing." Lowri said, she shut down the tablet and looked up properly. "It was either go home and rest while someone else did it, or I could do it myself." Steve looked at her, as if he admired her. Lowri had really missed that look. "Anyway, I'm gonna go test that simulation room out, see if it's up to my standards." Lowri stepped off and headed for the exit.
"Don't set my helicarrier on fire." Nick called after her.
Lowri turned as she walked and grinned, "Pretty sure you wouldn't have this helicarrier if it wasn't for me." She remarked, Lowri pause and she looked at Steve. "Do you want to come watch? I mean, it was pretty hard to explain but once you see it, it'll be better."
Steve shared a glance with Nick and then looked back at Lowri and nodded his head.
"Well, it's this way." Lowri said, smiling as she jerked her head towards the exit. She turned and walked away, hearing Steve's footsteps behind her.
He quickly caught up and fell into step with her. "So, what's this simulation room?" Steve asked.
"It's a large room set up to mimic different situations, mostly used for training new agents still green in the field. This is designed to do a little more than the usual stuff, it's been modified to accommodate my skillset." Lowri explained as they walked.
"Your skillset?" Steve asked.
"Didn't you hear what Nick called out?" Lowri asked with a knowing smile. "'Don't set my helicarrier on fire'?" Steve nodded his head slowly, "That room allows me to practise using my fire."
"Oh." Steve said slowly. He looked away, as if he was still finding it awkward to know all this.
"It's okay, Steve." Lowri said, she looked away from him and spied the door that hid the simulation room at the end of the hallway. "I know it's hard to adjust to all this, and finding out about me is probably throwing you off."
"Just a little bit." Steve said with a chuckle. "And of course, hunting something that is this dangerous just adds to it all."
Lowri paused as they reached the end of the hallway.
"I wanted to keep you from this to start off with, it hasn't been that long since you woke up, but then I figured that you'd want to be involved."
Steve nodded his head, "Anything to keep me busy, I'm happy to do." Steve said.
Lowri smiled as she pushed open the door and stepped in. Inside was all darkness until Lowri switched the lights on and revealed the small booth which held all the controls for the simulation room, just through a door to their left.
She stepped further into the room and began pressing buttons on the control panel in front of the windows looking into the simulation room.
"This looks very complicated." Steve remarked as he stepped into the room and turned his attention to her.
"It can be, but while I'm in there, you don't need to do anything." Lowri said, "I'm just setting the controls and making sure everything is working. There's controls in the room too, but these are the mains." She explained.
She leant back from the panel and pressed one of the buttons and the entire room lit up. The simulation room spanned two floors and it went back a fair bit, giving plenty of space to work.
Lowri stripped off her jacket and hung it on the back of the chair and then pressed the button beside the door to open it.
"Stay out here and you can watch." Lowri said, she turned to the door and placed her hand on the handle, she turned back. "I'm sorry I've been distant since you woke up, I would make up a really bad excuse." Lowri said, she looked up at him, "But I just can't seem to lie to you."
She pulled the door open and stepped in hastily, her cheeks burning.
Why does she feel so awkward around him?
Lowri shook off the feeling and stepped into the centre of the room and then focused on bringing her fire forward.
For an hour, Lowri let the fire go and pushed her boundaries. The room was an excellent way to let loose of anger or any bad emotions and to practise. Sure, pretty much everyone knew that she could create and control fire, but it didn't give her a safe place to practise.
Steve sat in the booth, watching her the entire time. Lowri tried not to let that nag at her mind, she tried to focus only on herself and it kind of worked. He looked at her with amazement in his eyes as she exited the simulation room.
"That was…" Steve trailed off. He fell into silence and Lowri crossed to the control panel and she shut down the simulation room. "Who else knew about you?"
Lowri stopped pressing buttons and slowly turned to him.
"I didn't want to tell anyone but there came about situations that I couldn't control. Peggy knew and so did Chester Phillips. Howard Stark knew after I interrogated a man, the Howling Commandos knew as soon as I joined them in the field." Lowri explained.
"You went out into the field?" Steve asked, he glanced down at the floor, smiling coyly. Lowri narrowed her eyes at him and smiled curiously at him.
"What is it?" Lowri asked, leaning forward slightly.
"I was right." Steve said firmly. He stood up and stepped closer to her, towering over her with his height. "You were wasted in that office and you finally realised it."
Lowri shifted her weight from one foot to the other and smiled up at him.
"I realised that when I helped fight in the Alps. And I'm pretty sure Chester realised that too." Lowri glanced down at the floor, "When you went down into the water, I asked to help with the 107th with the rest of the Hydra bases."
"There were more?" Steve asked.
"Yes. But they weren't bases that you took down, they were smaller ones, communication branches and storage units mostly. None of them were heavily guarded but Chester allowed me to go. He agreed that my skills were too good to be wasted." Lowri confirmed.
Steve had a knowing smile on his face and he stepped back. "I'm glad you finally saw what I saw."
Lowri nodded her head and turned back to the control panel.
"Agent Romanoff, Agent Jones. We've got a hit on Loki in Germany. Co-ordinates are being sent through now. Get a jet up in the air. The Captain is going with you." Nick's voice rang out in Lowri's ear piece and she looked up.
"What is it?" Steve asked, his voice laced with concern.
"We've got a hit on Loki." Lowri said, turning to him and smiling. Lowri pressed her finger to her earpiece. "Wheels up in ten." She replied.
Again, I deeply apologise for the massive gap between the updates... It's been so crazy and busy. There's been work and then there's been snow... At least it's spring now!
Thanks to all my lovely readers, hope you all enjoy.
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