Hello everyone!

I would just like to warn you all that I will NOT be posting tomorrow. I don't have school and my mom and I are having a movie marathon consisting of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Chronicle (Okay, Chronicle isn't a Marvel film, but we were going to see it in theaters, but we went to the Woman in Black instead.)

I will try to post on Saturday or Sunday if possible.

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LittleMissMia123: Hahaha "because you're worth it" *cue hair flip in the wind*

KatiKates: Thank you very much!

Itsgoose2u: I'm glad too haha.

yesiamweird: I'm so sorry to hear that. My grandpa died when I was three and he had Alzheimer's (which is where I got the idea from) and he couldn't remember anyone but me. I was his little Mandy (his nickname for me). Oh, and thank you!

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Fanno . Anderson-Smythe: Haha yay! Thanks so much! (also, it would not let me properly type out your penname, so excuse the spaces in there)

AngelVamp6688: Haha Fury can be so silly sometimes, can't he?

amrawo: Thank you!

Chapter Twelve

The coordinates of the warehouse in which Gwen had been seen were transferred to the aircraft where Steve and all the others were in. They didn't take long to lift off and leave the helicarrier knowing that Gwen did not have control of herself. Steve wasn't quite sure why Tony and Bruce seemed a bit on edge about this, but he assumed they were simply worried about her too. But Steve wasn't stupid. He could tell that they knew something he didn't. But he wasn't about to ask. It wasn't the time to.

Steve slid his shield on his arm as the aircraft descended from the night sky. They weren't landing right next to the warehouse, just in case Loki decided to make a run for it at the sight of them. Instead, they were actually landing in another dock nearby that was also abandoned. Before they opened the door, Steve turned to them all.

"I say we split up," said Steve in his Captain voice. "Tony, you start looking for her on the upper floors. Take Barton to the top to keep a lookout. Thor, go to the middle part of the building. Agent Romanoff, you go on the lower levels. Banner, keep an eye on all those monitors."

"Aye aye, Captain," answered Tony while giving a mock salute. "Let's go, Boy on Fire."

The door to the aircraft opened and Clint and Tony walked out. As silent as possible, Tony grabbed onto Clint, who had his bow in his hand and his arrows on his back, and flew up into the sky and in the direction of the building.

Bruce sat down in a chair in front of some monitors. Steve had no idea what any of them meant, but he hoped that they were searching for Gwen. It would make it easier if they knew what floor she was on. From what Steve could see, the warehouse was at least ten floors, most likely more. But with the team they had, it couldn't be that hard to find her.

Thor took off for the warehouse and Steve walked with Natasha as they made their way towards the building.

"Do you know what you're doing?" she asked him, loading a new magazine into her handgun.

"I sure hope so," answered Steve.

"I'll start on the first floor then."

Steve watched as Natasha simply walked through the front door. He did not follow, of course, and jumped up to a fire escape staircase on the side of the building. It led to a window on the second floor. Carefully, Steve climbed inside, aware of the broken glass that littered the floor. The room was very dark, but he didn't have anything to use for a light except wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. On the concrete walls were graffiti of different gang symbols. It made Steve wonder why Loki decided to hide here. But then again, that was the most disturbing part.

Loki had been hiding.

It was obvious the god was up to no good. And so Steve continued on, though even more cautious.

He left the room he came into and found himself in a hallway. The soldier slowly moved forward, trying his best not to make too much noise. As he continued, he found that several rooms were blocked by rubble. Why the place was so bad was beyond Steve, but he tried his best to get into them anyway. He found that it was no use, there was just too much in the way.

Steve passed what looked like a gym which held several different cardio machines and a broken television. He looked for any sign of Gwen, but it seemed hopeless. Then suddenly, a cardboard box that was sitting on a small table in the gym fell off of its seat. Heart racing, Steve walked over, hoping to find some sort of sign, only to find an ugly rat scampering away with a squeal. Sighing, Steve left and went on to the next room.

"You've got quite a grip there," joked Clint as Tony placed him on the roof of the warehouse.

"I'm sorry the flight wasn't as pleasant as you wanted it to be, your highness," retorted Tony.

Clint smirked and put on some nightvision goggles. He could now easily see Tony standing next to him, though everything was green. Clint couldn't help but be slightly reminded of a Tom Clancy video game he had once played on his Xbox.

"I'll be on the floors right below your feet," stated Tony. "If the monsters scare you, just call for me."

"Yes, mother."

Clint could nearly hear Tony smirk before he flew off and into a window on the top floor. There was a crash from what Clint assumed was the Iron Man suit breaking through a window.

The archer then turned his attention to the night sky. There was nothing in sight, but just in case, Clint reached back for a prepared arrow and attached it to the string of his bow. He pointed the weapon down, but he was ready for anything that was going to come at him.

There was a sudden quiet bang and Clint whipped around, his bow up and his arrow aimed at whatever was waiting for him. But all he saw was air. Clint laughed to himself. He was being paranoid. It was probably Tony shooting a ray at a rat or something. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. There was nothing worse for Clint than that feeling. Actually, being possessed by Loki was worse, but the feeling of being watched was a close second. Clint was the one that watched people, not the other way around.

He pivoted on his heel several times, waiting for someone to show themselves. Clint didn't dare say anything just in case no one actually knew he was there. But he doubted that.

Out of no where, a beeping noise started. Curious, Clint followed the noise to where it grew louder and louder until he found the source of the beeping behind a broken satalite dish.

It was a bomb.

And it was set to go off in two seconds.

Unfortunately, it took those two seconds for Clint's brain to comprehend what was going on and therefore he had no time to get away.

The bomb went off and Clint closed his eyes as he felt himself falling through the roof. He kept a grip on his bow and arrows as he fell. He hit the ground of the floor below him with a thump and groaned in pain. After laying on the floor for a few moments to regain his strength, Clint forced himself up but using a nearby table for support. His hand touched something cold and Clint looked over to see a syringe filled with some sort of blue substance. Clint's first thought was that this was left over from that drug bust, but he had never heard of something blue before. He picked up and examined it. Could this be Loki's? He doubted it, but it didn't look like something average that you could find at any home or even a hospital. Or at least a normal hospital.

"Hello, Clint."

Clint turned around in a flash to see Gwen standing behind him, still in her SHIELD uniform and her blonde curls messy and covered in dust. But her eyes...her eyes were glazed over. No, it was more than that. They were just completely white. In the moment Clint took to feel shocked, he was surprised when Gwen suddenly hit him in the head with a metal object, causing him to fall unconscious.

One Avenger down, five to go.

Tony heard the explosion right away.

"Guys," he said so that the rest of the team could hear him, "did you all just hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Natasha's voice.

"That explosion. It came from above me."

"Did Barton do it?" asked Steve's voice.

"I don't know. I think a better question is, was it directed at Barton?"

"It must have been," said Thor, "but right now I believe I am looking at some sort of torture device that is shaped like a casket."

"Thor," came Bruce's voice, "that's a tanning bed."

Tony smirked behind his mask. He knew that Gwen would be stiffling a laugh at the situation. But alas, she was still under Loki's control.

"What an odd way to tan," answered Thor.

"I'll go check it out," said Tony.

"No," said Steve sternly. "I will."

Tony scoffed. "I'm closer to it. Why should you get to go?"

"Stark, just let me go."

Steve's voice sounded different this time. Tony had never heard so much confidence used in one sentence. The genius could only assume that Steve wanted to go because he probably thought Gwen was there and wanted to face her himself. It was stupid.

"Rogers," said Bruce, "she won't recognize you. And if she does, that won't change anything."

"I know," answered Steve. "Trust me, I want to go check it out."

After a moment of silence, Tony sighed. "Get going then, bald eagle."

"Thank you, Stark."

Tony didn't respond. He knew he'd have to get used to this whole, "Steve is ready to give his life for her" thing, but it seemed odd to him. The two barely knew each other. However, they were both awkward, they were both weird, Steve being out of time and Gwen being more proper than many other women these days, and they were both stubborn. So Tony supposed that made up for barely knowing each other. It was like the two had some sort of chemistry, some sort of connection, that Tony didn't have with Gwen. That no one had with Gwen. Except for Steve. And so Tony continued on, his feet clanking on the hard floor, slightly hoping that Steve would find Gwen and save her instead of anyone else.

It hadn't taken Steve too long to get to the roof. He hadn't passed any of the other Avengers on his way and everyone remained silent as they all creeped around the warehouse. As Steve opened the door that let him out to the roof, he felt the cool night air hit his face. And then there was a bit of a smell that seemed like smoke. Steve followed it until he could easily see where part of the roof had exploded. There was a hole in the building where the explosion occured and Steve looked down to see a room. He leapt down inside of it.

There was a single light illuminating the room apart from the stars and the moon shining through the hole in the ceiling. The lightbulb dangled from a wire. Nearby there was a table, which was empty. Steve looked around and saw no sign of anyone, not even Clint. Maybe the archer was okay and he had run off or something. But then again, he would've responded to their voices in his earpiece. Steve couldn't help but think that someone had attacked him.

The soldier was on edge, but that didn't seem to help him when something made impact on his back and nearly knocked him over. Whatever had grabbed hold of him got off as he regained his balance and turned around, his shield up.

It was Gwen.

Steve immediately noticed her eyes. He loved the bright green color they were, but he no longer saw that. It worried him.

"Hello, Steve," she said. Her voice wasn't quite hers. Well, yes, it was hers, but there was a layer of ice that covered it. It was cool like Loki's.

"Gwen, you aren't in your right mind," said Steve. He lowered his shield and his ear felt empty suddenly. He noticed Gwen held his earpiece in her hand. She must've grabbed it when she attacked him. Following his gaze, Gwen looked down at the earpiece and then dropped it on the floor. She picked up her boot and then stomped on the device. Then, she looked back up at Steve and moved her other hand into a better view for him.

She held a syringe.

"Don't make me do this the hard way, Steve," she teased, a smirk on her lips.

"Stop, Gwen," continued Steve. "We can make you better."

"What makes you think that?"

"You're under Loki's control. You don't know what you're doing."

"I think I know what I'm doing, Steve."

She jumped forward again and Steve was caught by surprise. He hadn't actually expected her to be good at hand-to-hand combat. Steve, however, refused to hurt her and dodged her moves as best as he could.

At one point, though, Gwen made a jump from the table, the syringe pointed so that it would get him in the neck. Steve had no idea what was in it, but he was sure that he didn't want to be injected with it. With as little force as possible, he caught Gwen and pushed her up against a nearby wall with his shield. It therefore made it hard for her to reach him with the shield in between them.

Gwen looked like she was slightly out of breath, but the creepy smile she wore started to fade. Suddenly, her eyes slowly turned back to normal. They were as wide as saucers and full of determination.

"Steve!" she exclaimed. "You have to leave!"

Realizing that Gwen was possibly fighting Loki's control over her, he let the shield fall off his arm and grabbed Gwen as she started to fall as well.

"I know, we can get you out," answered Steve a bit excitedly.

"No, Steve! You don't understand! You need to leave now!"

Steve shook his head. "We've got to get you out."

"Listen!" she shouted. "I've been saving up my energy so that when you came here I could tell you this! I've rigged the building with explosives. I was supposed to get you with the syringe and then you'd fall under Loki's control and we'd leave to go find him. Then I'd blow up the building, killing everyone else inside."

"Then let's go!"

"No, wait! I have to go to Loki! He'll be suspicious if you all just suddenly take off and I don't come back to him! Then once you're all clear I can blow it up!"

"Forget Loki!" insisted Steve. "He's insane, let's go!"

"Steve, please."

Even though Steve had not known Gwen for very long, he was pretty sure she had never had such pleading in her voice and eyes before. But it wasn't just like he could leave her here. What if she never had enough energy to fight Loki's control again? They didn't know where he was going after this.

But just as Steve was figuring out how to force Gwen out of the building, her eyes became completely white again. The smirk was on her face again and just as she raised the hand which held the syringe, a force pushed her aside and Steve could hear her head make impact with the nearby table, knocking her out cold.

Steve turned to see Clint standing there, blood running from his nose.

"What was that for?" asked Steve, frowning.

"I didn't think you were gonna do it," answered Clint, still looking at Gwen. "Now we can get her out of here."

Steve leaned down and picked her up after placing his shield on his back. Clint reached down and picked up the syringe.

"Banner can look at this," said Clint when Steve eyed him curiously.

The two of them walked out of the room, Gwen placed in Steve's arms. They nearly ran right into Tony.

"Hey, what's taking you so-"

He stopped talking when he saw Gwen.

"What d'you know," he muttered. "You knocked her out."

"That was me," said Clint, raising his left hand. "Rogers wouldn't hurt her."

Tony looked back up at Steve, though the soldier didn't know it as Tony still had his mask down.

"Okay," said Tony so that everyone could hear through their earpieces, "I found Rogers and Barton. They've got Gwendolyn. She's unconcious, but alive. Let's get back to the aircraft."

And with that, Steve and Clint followed Tony out of the building.

Why were they taking off?

Loki sat on a broken down boat as he watched the aircraft that had landed near the warehouse lift off and fly off towards the night sky. But why weren't they in the building? Where was Gwen? Why was the warehouse standing?

The god of mischief and lies stood up and felt anger running through his veins. Gwen had failed him. How, he was not sure. But she had. And they obviously had her back.

He had seen the explosion on the rooftop that he knew was made for Agent Barton. Gwen had said they'd stick him on the rooftop. Loki had been happy, or at least not irritated, when he saw that and knew that one Avenger had been taken care of. And so he continued to sit in his boat and wait.

But now the aircraft was gone and the building was standing.

Loki snapped the fishing rod that he had been twirling in his hands in half. He had Gwen. He had her. And now she was gone. All that power she possessed was now out of his hands. Even having the tesseract sitting next to him wasn't enough.

So with a snarl, Loki disappeared to begin planning once more.

And this time, he would not fail.