Chapter Five.
"No more playing around, we need to start taking this seriously." Steve said to the men present. His mind was on Clint and Natasha.
"I think the problem here, Steve, is that it's hard to believe one of us is Hydra." Bruce confessed. Tony and Thor nodded in agreement.
"See, that's the problem. Let's just have a sit-down with the team and lure the weasel out." Tony suggested, arms crossed. They were all standing in a circle, at least five feet from each other. "Then we'll do that," Steve said. "We'll have a sit-down."
"Sir, Mr. Barton and Miss Romanoff have returned."
They heard a yelp from the staircase. Everyone ran forward to see Natasha, Clint, and hot dogs on the floor with a laser aimed at the pair. Security protocol. "What the hell, Stark?"
"Jarvis, turn it off. For now," Tony said, disarming the security.
"Where have you two been?" Steve said sharply, eyeing the laser as he past Tony. Clint bent down to pick up the mushed hot dogs. "To get food," he said simply. "For all of us, since no one thinks about human needs anymore." Natasha remained behind Clint on the stairs still. "What about the car?" Tony brought up, recalling the satellite images he had checked on his phone. "Natasha has a car—"
"Let her to the talking then," Steve interrupted, looking at Natasha. The woman stepped around Clint, holding her own bag of hot dogs and a soda and walked right up to the Captain. "I thought you'd appreciate some food." She said, dropped the bag in his hands, "My car runs by itself, you remember that."
"I got hungry, and there's nothing to eat in this tower so Clint and I went to get food. I thought we worked out this buddy system for a reason I don't see why you're so worked up." She said, batting her eyes innocently before dropping the fake expression, "If you think any of this had to do with Hydra, you're wrong."
"We'll see." The Captain said, he was still unable to tell if she was lying or not, even after working with her to take down Hydra. "Everyone sit in the living room, we need to talk." No one argued.
Once the team gathered around the living room, found a seat on the couch and sat down, the Captain addressed his team, "From this point forward, everyone here is a suspect of affiliation with Hydra. Except Thor," there were some looks of objection but no one said anything, "He just returned from Asgard and honestly, I don't think he'd be able to pick up the hammer if he were a part of Hydra. From now on, Thor gets the food."
"Or I can just order take-out, you know," Tony suggested, but allowed the Captain to continue when he received a glaring look from the guy.
"We need to take this seriously, and I can't stand being around a traitor much longer," Steve said in that voice that made you feel guilty even though you weren't.
Thor stood up, clamping the Steve's shoulder, "Thank you for your words, Captain. I appreciate your faith in me." This earned him a half-smile. Tony rolled his eyes, "Okay, so you're in the clear big guy, but we still don't know who the Hydra person is."
"Who could be Hydra?" Clint spoke up, shifting in his seat, "I mean why? One of us, Hydra? C'mon, that makes no sense, we're like, almost always together."
"It'd be someone who could cover their tracks," Steve said. "Someone who can hide in plain sight, away from SHIELD but inside the system."
"Like a tech wizard," Clint hinted.
Around this time was when a few members of the team started eyeing Tony. He felt the eyes trained on him and the uneasy tension in the quietness that suddenly over came the room. "Me?" He raised a brow. "Fine, I could be Hydra, but like you said I'm not the only suspect," Tony said, getting defensive.
"Sit down, Tony." Steve said when the billionaire decided to get up. "No, I'm not going to take the heat when I know all of you are equally as guilty." But Tony didn't want to push it; he sat back down, falling back into composure.
"Can we discuss why Bruce decided to stay behind while you, Thor, and I went after Clintasha?" Tony said, bringing up the scene from earlier that day. "I already told you, I was using the bathroom," the scientist said bitterly.
"Taking that long? What were you doing in there? Hmm? Contacting the last remaining members of Hydra?"
"If you really must know, I was disposing of some fecal matter." Bruce said. He wasn't playing this game. Everyone made a face. "Why don't you give us the type based on Bristol stool scale while you're at it," Tony groaned. "You asked," Bruce defended calmly. "I don't have anything to do with Hydra."
"Maybe they offered you a cure." Steve said, coming up various reasons why any of his team members would turn dark side.
"Trust me, there is no cure."
"Is that what Hydra told you to tell us?"
"Is this what it has come to? Turning against each other?" Thor said angrily, "Listen to yourselves, we're suppose to be a team. I left Asgard to join you permanently and I return to this chaos? We must put ourselves together and be what we once were, a team." He's had enough madness back home, with the death of his brother on his shoulders now a traitor.
"We can't put ourselves back together until someone steps forward," Steve said.
Clint got tense, this situation was too much too handle. "Okay, that's it. I'm leaving," he said, getting up only to get questioned by the Captain.
"Why?"
"Look, I respect you Captain, but I don't feel comfortable around any of these guys, knowing one of 'em is Hydra."
"Why, feeling guilty? Afraid to get caught?" Tony tempted.
"What? No! I'm not Hydra!" Clint nearly shouted, he felt like a cornered hawk. Then he got swamped with questions from Stark, Thor, and Rogers, respectively.
"Why'd you get up then?"
"What do you have to hide?"
"Where were you when we were on the fall?"
"On a mission." He said bitterly, only answering that one.
"For who? Hydra?" Tony offered. Everyone's eyes were on him. Clint began to sweat.
"For SHIELD."
"Clint's not bright enough to be Hydra." Natasha said in his defense.
"And you are, Miss Romanoff?" Steve called her out, which surprised everyone. Natasha could tell the spotlight was now on her, "My loyalty was to SHIELD before I knew it was compromised, trust me Rogers, I can only handle so much debt." He stared her down, "I can't trust anyone." That hit the team hard. All except for Thor, who knew he was on the good side.
Tony got up, this time to comfort the Steve, who looked ready to hit something. "Don't worry, we'll all be here, I've got my camera's and security online. No one's leaving."
The Captain glared at him, "Disable everything."
"Excuse me?"
"If you turn out to be Hydra, I'd rather you not have weapons at your disposal."
"Fine, done deal." Tony didn't argue to prove he was capable of surviving without his security. "Jarvis, disable all functions of Stark tower and disengage Stark Override."
"Already done, sir." JARVIS replied.
"There, happy?"
"I'll only be happy when I find out who the traitor is." Steve shoving past Tony once again, heading to a bedroom, content that the Tower wasn't at Tony's disposal.
"I don't think any of us will be happy when we know who it is," Clint muttered. The Avengers all sat in silence for a couple minutes longer. One by one they piled out of the living room to their own designated rooms. None of them had a good night's rest.
oOoOoOo
Tony Stark was now in the security of his room. "Stark override," he tested.
"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid Stark Override is locked."
Tony nodded to himself, "Right. Okay."
oOoOoOo
Clint didn't feel like sleeping in that bed, it wasn't his. This room didn't feel like home. Too fancy for his taste. So he sulked in the corner, making himself as comfortable as was possible.
oOoOoOo
Natasha slept peacefully.
oOoOoOo
Steve stayed up longer than he intended to, polishing his shield, and ended up falling asleep around two in the morning.
oOoOoOo
Bruce was tired, so against his better judgement, he fell asleep as soon as he was under the warmth of his covers.
oOoOoOo
Nothing could have prepared them for the blaring alarm that followed the next morning.
AN: Who is Hydra? I know who it is. As always I encourage commenting, I'd love to hear what you think! Unfortunately I am not a telepath, so if you don't say anything I don't know if you like/hate it. Thanks again friends~
Purple Pixie5 - I think so too. (I'm just kidding, I can't tell yet).
Your Friend Tiger - I'm hoping you don't hit a detour on this road then.