The next day Natasha (begrudgingly, and after much coaxing from Clint and Coulson) joined the other Avengers in the medical wing.
A large ward had been cleared of personnel to allow Doctor Hart and his team, to perform their work in private.
Fury glared at the three of them as they entered the room late, Natasha rolled her eyes and received a grin from Agent Hill; the only other person permitted to be in on this meeting.
They took their seats at the large round conference table which had been brought up here for the occasion, and Dr. Hart began his speech;
"The aim of 'Project Decoy' is to enable the six of you to share a psychic link while out in the field; removing the need to rely on electronic communication devices, I know you all have some concerns, so anyone have any questions?"
All eyed shot to Natasha, but she kept quiet for now.
"How do we turn it off?" Tony asked, he was clearly excited about it.
"Practice, it's like using any conscious though process. It'll just take a few days to get used to"
"Why is this so important again?" Clint asked, more for Natasha's benefit than his own
Doctor Hart glanced nervously over to Director Fury, who sat forward in his chair; "You know very well why Agent Barton. On too many occasions have your com units been lost or damaged, found by captives or failed to transmit a signal, just last month your mission in Nairobi was compromised because someone hacked the transmissions. We almost lost you, and then Romanov when we sent her in after you" Fury answered, he was getting fed up of people questioning his actions
"How does it work?" Bruce asked, he'd been unsure of the whole thing until he'd seen the design of the drugs, and even he had to admit it looked genius.
But he needed reassurance one last time
"The drugs emit a resonance that connects to one another; you can learn to control it; so the link is only present when you want it to be. If you practice enough, you'll be able to connect to just certain members of the team" Dr. Hart responded proudly
Now Natasha spoke up;
"Is there a way to remove it when it all goes wrong?"
"Is there- ... Wrong?"
"Wrong" she repeated slowly, and when she didn't get a reply she elaborated; "Amiss? Not to plan? Goes south? Awry? Goes to shit..?"
"Erm, Agent Romanov, there- there is" he stuttered
"There's no way to reverse it is there?"
"It has- It's been successfully trialed"
"So I've heard, but you don't know how it's going to react with the super serum or the arc reactor, what affects it might have on Thor, or how the Hulk is going to respond to having other people chattering inside his head" she didn't mention that her brain had already been played with more times than she'd like and wasn't keen to see if this new drug would affect her in a different way than intended
"Agent Romanov that is enough! Those variables have been taken into consideration" Fury informed her sternly
She knew he was under a lot of pressure, the council were pushing for this; and that fact alone made Natasha uneasy, but it didn't mean she couldn't be angry at Fury. She was basically being forced to undergo a medical experiment she didn't consent to, and this reminded her all too clearly of her past.
"B-before we go ahead with the p-procedure, we will perform brain scans and r-run some tests to ensure it is s-safe to p-proceed" Doctor Hart informed them, he was clearly faltering under Natasha's deathly glare and was eager to end the confrontational meeting.
XXX
Hart's team set about gathering their data; blood pressure, pulse and temperature. They took brain scans and blood samples, recorded EEGs and collected confidential data from their Shield files and medical history. Their tests took the better part of the day and Dr. Hart successfully avoided Agent Romanov for all of it.
They all took a break for dinner before the team underwent the procedure. It was simple enough; they were first injected with a sedative, before the newly developed drug was administered. It would take a few hours to take effect and they'd need to be kept under close observation during that time. They then wouldn't be able to leave the unit until they'd mastered the control of their new abilities.
XXX
The following morning Tony woke with a banging headache, his vision was blurry and he was instantly sick. He head a familiar sigh from beside him as someone wiped his sweaty forehead with a cloth.
"Pepper?"
"I'm here Tony"
He forced his eyes open and waited for them to refocus
"Did it work?"
"They think so, though Thor and Steve are the only ones awake so they haven't tested it yet. How do you feel?"
"Hungover" he told her, sitting up from his hospital bed.
Bruce, Clint and Natasha were all still passed out in theirs, while Steve and Thor were in a separate room talking with some doctors
"How'd you get in here? I thought this was all top secret, need to know bullshit?"
"Hill let me in, Fury wasn't pleased but seeing as how I knew all about Project Decoy anyway he didn't see the harm"
Clint started to stir from across the room, muttering Natasha's name as he came round. Tony scrambled to his feet and helped his friend focus on fighting the drugs still dragging him down.
"You okay Legolas?"
"My head"
"Yeah, it hurts for a little while"
"Where's Tasha?"
"She's not awake yet, her and Bruce are still out of it"
Clint swung his legs off the bed and stood uneasily; he stumbled the few steps to the seat by her bed, cupped her hand in his own and rested his pounding head by her side.
XXX
It was another few hours until all of the Avengers were up, and their heads clear enough for the doctors to run their tests. Bruce was the last one awake, and had bolted to his containment cell for fear the Hulk would make an unwanted appearance. He managed to keep control and once his killer headache finally shifted; he joined his team (and Pepper) for lunch.
"Miss Potts, we need you to leave now if you don't mind, you may visit again tomorrow"
"Right, okay" she said her farewells to the team before kissing her boyfriend goodbye.
She was secretly relieved as she swept her eyes over the six superheroes one last time before she left to take her plane back to New York; she had initially shared some of Natasha's concerns, but Tony's enthusiasm for 'advancement' had been contagious and she'd eventually agreed that it might be a good idea.
She just hoped they'd all master the skill required to only transmit the thoughts they wanted to, before they murdered each other.