Maria Hill crossed her arms and glared faintly at Sean as he hovered over the shoulder of one of the agents placed in front of a computer terminal. He had sent the last thirty minutes flitting between terminals, quickly scanning the screens before moving on to the next. He wasn't looking at any of the reports from the attacks both in Paris and on the Helicarrier, instead he was looking at the daily reports; police and emergency services reports, updates on war zones and field reports from agents. It did not sit well with her. Loki had forced to sit at the conference table with the Avengers and the seven of them were silently ignoring each other.
"Got it!" Sean shouted. Everyone turned towards in agitated excitement. Loki was out of his chair and next to Sean in a flash "Where?" he was desperate to find his wife safe and sound.
Clint looked over the information on the screen "I don't get it. It's just a gas leak down by the docks. See the police have the area cordon off. This is nothing, you're just wasting our time."
Sean gave him an enigmatic smile "Notice anything odd about the report? So the cops have two square blocks cordon off but no one from the gas company is there fixing it. In fact there is not a single, solitary soul inside those two square blocks. Seems a little odd, no?"
Clint shrugged a little uncomfortably "I guess its a little odd, but that still doesn't mean anything." he challenged.
"So these villains do not wished to be disturbed then?" Thor asked "We can easily change that!"
Sean sighed "It's not as easy as that. The Chitauri aren't the reason why the area is deserted, it's Reagan." He noticed the blank look the superheroes "The reason no one is inside that empty zone is that there is a part of their brain that refuses to let them walk in there. They'll make up reasons why they can't go there such as a gas leak but as I pointed out no one there, not even homeless."
"Why?" Fury barked out.
Sean was getting uncomfortable, he looked over at Loki "To avoid collateral damage."
"Well it's nice to hear that someone is worried about innocent people getting hurt." Stark muttered darkly.
Fury was already moving unto the next step; planing a strike on the warehouse "Agents please escort our guests to the cells. Romanoff prep the Quinjet, you'll be off ASAP."
There was a polite cough behind him. Fury turned back to look at Sean.
"You can't just walk in there. like I said everyone subconsciously avoids the area. You can send them in there all you want but they aren't going to get any further than the cordon."
"Let me guess, you can get us past the barrier." Fury said sardonically.
"Put cuffs on us if it'll make you feel better but we are going with you."
Loki gave him a very dirty look at the mention of handcuffs. He did not want to ever be chained again but if it guaranteed Reagan's safe return he would do it.
The Avengers stared at the abandoned warehouse before them. It was a hard slog from the Quinjet to this point only two blocks away because every step they took their instincts screamed at them to turn around. The two chained gods seemed less affected by the mental barrier. The building was squat, dark and dingy. Most of the windows were either boarded up or broken.
"I mean could they have picked a more stereotypical location." Hawkeye griped trying to hide his disquiet.
Sean shrugged. "Why mess with success."
"No its not. The bad guys are always found out." Countered Hawkeye. All his years of training as an agent and an operative told him that clichéd choices like this were never to the advantage of the people using them. He could not believe that the Chitauri or whoever controlled them now would deliberately do something so uncreative.
"One should always do these things properly or not at all." Sean nodded sagely with a weird quirk of the lips.
"But it's not! Seriously this is by far the worst way to do this!" Hawkeye was getting really steamed now. He was not happy about SHIELD and the Avengers so willing working with Loki. They were on their way right now to rescue Loki's wife for God's sake, something he still couldn't believe that. The stupidity of their enemy now was staggering and was irritating his already frayed nerves.
"Hawkeye can you get a visual on the building's interior?" Captain America asked.
The archer scanned the surrounding rooftops and the target. "No, the interior is too dark to see into and thermal doesn't seem to pick up the Chitauri or those mechanical... things. I don't see any guards either. The whole place is quite."
The old war hero nodded, slipping into strategy mode "Looks like we'll be going in blind. From the building plans the most likely place they'd be holding Reagan is in the office near the south corner. Now our best point of entry is the backdoor. Iron Man will take point followed by myself, then Loki and Sean with Thor at the rear. Hawkeye, you and Black Widow will stay out here and watch the perimeter. Let us know if anyone some much as looks at this warehouse." The team acknowledged the orders and got into position.
Iron Man carefully and quietly cut the lock to the door before swinging it open. It gave off a loud squeal of rusted metal as it opened. The group tensed waiting to be set upon by Chitauri or the like. Nothing came. Captain America slipped past Iron Man, bringing his shield up just in case. It wasn't until they moved a few steps further into the near black interior that they discovered the horrifying reason for the lack of resistance. The Chitauri were all dead. Bodies were haphazardly strewn around the half empty room.
Iron Man crouched down next to one of the corpses. "There's some kind of fluid leaking out of its nose, eyes, mouth. Really everywhere." The next two Chitauri were the same, fluid was oozing out of every orifice. He looked back at the others "I don't like this."
Sean moved towards another one, examining the creature's face "We need to hurry things up." His voice was strained. No one disagreed.
Light illuminated the open office door. A Chitauri had died in the doorway but they easily pushed it out of the way. Reagan sat tied to a chair in the centre of the room. Another alien, not Chitauri, lay sprawled across the table between them, its spear point hovered just under her neck forcing her to hold her head very still. Beyond the ropes tying her to the chair and the tense body language, the woman sitting there would not have looked out of place at a black tie affair, her hair and makeup still in immaculate condition.
"Reagan!" Loki exclaimed running forward to free her clumsily, the cuffs making it awkward. The two shared an intimate embrace.
The three Avengers stood there a little off footed on what to do now. The girl had been rescued, there had been no aliens to fight and none of them seem too eager to ruin the moment between the couple. Iron Man broke the moment first. "How did the Chitauri die?"
Reagan glared over Loki's shoulder at him "Natural causes." She said tersely.
"Yes, murder is a perfectly natural cause of death." Sean added with dark humour.
Reagan separated herself from her husband and turned to face the Avengers "The Other stupidly thought that his skills were such that he could match me. He was wrong and when he could get what he wanted he switched to brute force. I merely put a stop to that." She gave Sean a long hard look. Before the stunned and slack jawed heroes could rally their thoughts the dark haired goddess turned to address them again "We should be leaving. I'm sure that these... creature's deaths have not gone unnoticed by their allies. They will be here shortly." She moved to leave.
Captain America held out an arm to stop her. "Wait now, I think we need some answers first. How did you kill the Chitauri? Why are they after you? Who are they working with? Who is the Other?"
"We don't have time. I can answer all these questions and more back on the Helicarrier." She moved to push them out the door.
"Oh no you don't!" Iron Man shouted chasing after her.