Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers or anything else that Marvel owns. This chapter was fun to write. Especially the end part.
"Actually, he already arrived. In fact, he arrived ten minutes ago." A voice called out to them. Fury made it out to be a woman's voice, but it wasn't Hill's nor was it Romanoff's. Only one other person that could hack into his office without him knowing. Alyssa Ivanov. "Fury, I thought you trained your agent better than this."
Fury spun around to look at me. His eyes hardened once he saw me.
"Agent Ivanov, good to see you back."
"Good to be back."
Tash folded her arms, a defense mechanism. She thought I killed Barton. I frowned internally, I thought she knew I wouldn't hurt Barton.
Fury's lips pursed but I said nothing. "Why are you here ?"
I quirked an eyebrow. "Why do you think ?"
He sighed. "Ok so, how did you get here ?"
"Like I said, I thought you trained your Agents better than this. He's been here for more than ten minutes. Your performance has fallen."
He started to glare at me. "My performance never falls, Ivanov. You should know that." He lifted his head up to look superior, the eye-rolling was resisted on my part. "You left. That's what happened." He stated.
I decided to humor his first question. "I'm here to talk about the Avengers."
He stared at me for a while. "Your position is intact, if that's what you're wondering."
I nodded, expecting that answer. "I know."
As I left, I noticed his shoulders relaxing a bit, from relief.
Tash walked quickly to my side. She didn't say anything. "I didn't kill him Tash." She nodded, happy to receive that answer. "He'll be fine Tash. If I don't make sure he is, then you'll make sure he is." We arrived at my room. Correction, my old room.
"It's still yours." She answered my silent question. "We're meeting the others in one hour. Fury will want you there Aly." I nodded. She smiled tightly at me and left.
I turned to my room and sighed in relief. What I told Fury was true, it was good to be back. I sat on my bed and reached for the bedside locker. It still had the book that I was reading and I decided in the hour, I would finish it.
I left my room once I was finished the book and walked outside the helicarrier. I saw Tash and a man, I also saw Agent Coulson leaving.
"There is the other Agent now." Tash said looking at me. The man turned and smiled at me.
I held out my hand to him. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the typical American. Steve Rodgers.
"Agent Ivanov." I greeted.
"Ma'am." He shook my hand. "Steve Rodgers." We all walked towards the railing at the edge of the ship.
Tash began to smirk, mischievous look in her eye. "There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" I chuckled remembering Coulson the last time I saw him, he only needed ten more.
Rodgers had a confused look upon his face. "Trading cards?"
Tash nodded, amused. "They're vintage, he's very proud." Tash and I looked at each other and I started chuckling again, shaking my head in amusement. Rodgers was too caught up being confused to notice.
"Oh, hey." I spun around to meet a man who was scratching the back of his neck nervously. He was shy, introverted and intelligent. Bruce Banner.
"Agent Ivanov." I reached my hand out, which he shook.
"I'm sure you know my name already. Or the other guy." He smiled sheepishly at me. I smiled tightly back.
He turned to Rodgers. "Dr. Banner." Rodgers greeted.
"Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you were coming." He began to look around nervously.
"Word is you can find the cube." Rodgers got straight to the point.
Banner smiled sheepishly again. "Is that the only word on me ?" He looked a little nervous.
"Only word I care about." Rodgers decided to be polite. Rare nowadays.
"This must be strange for you," Banner gestured around him. "All of this."
"Actually," I heard people training at the other side of the ship. "This is actually kind of familiar." The ship started to shake. Rodgers and Banner looked around alert.
"Gentlemen, you may want to step inside in a minute." They looked over the side of the ship. "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."
"Is this a submarine ?" Rodgers asked, once again confused. Must be hard coming from a different century.
"Really ?" Banner comment slightly amused. "They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container ?"
The 'ship' started to fly and it was spinning faster by the second. Rodgers looks amazed and Banner looked amused now. "Oh, no. This is much worse."
We walked back into the helicarrier before we did actually stop breathing and die.
We walk into the bridge to meet Fury. "Gentlemen."
Rodgers walks up to Fury giving him ten dollars. I felt my lips tug upward for a second before going right back down. Fury begins to walk over to Banner and reaches out his hand. Bruce shakes it hesitantly.
"Doctor, thank you for coming." He nodded his hand appreciatively.
"Thanks for asking nicely." Banner replies. "So, uh... How long am I staying ?"
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
Banner nods thinking about something. "Where are you with that ?"
Tash walked down and beside a computer, pressing buttons. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet." Coulson began. "Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
"That's still not going to find them in time." Tash finished for him. I frowned internally. Tash really does care for Barton. They're not 'going out' though. I guess since she owes him a debt...
"You have to narrow the field." Banner brought me out of my thoughts. I could see the cogs turning in his head to figure out what to do. "How many spectrometers do you have access to ?"
"How many are there ?" Fury challenged.
"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." He nodded, having thought this all through. "Do you have somewhere for me to work?"
"Agent Ivanov, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." He said. I nodded and began to walk down the hall.
"You're going to love it, Doc." I smiled at him. "We've got all the toys." He chuckled.
"So uh... What's your deal in all of this ?" He asked.
My eyebrows creased together slightly, indicating that I was confused. "My... Deal ?"
"Well, I have the other guy-"
"And your brain." I added quickly. "I admire your work Dr. Banner, you shouldn't consider yourself lesser than others just because you have an anger problem." I smirked slightly at the end of my statement.
"Oh." He smiled sheepishly at me. "Thanks."
"I'm an agent." I answered his previous question. "I was trained to beat Agent Romanoff. Don't tell her, but I do a good job at it too." I grinned winking at him.
He chuckled. "Well, this is it." I said pointing at the door. "If you need anything-"
"Just find you, Agent Romanoff or Director Fury." He finished for me, nodding. "I'll be fine, Agent Ivanov." I smiled tightly making my way back towards the bridge.
"I mean, if it's not too much trouble." I smirked as Coulson was talking to Rodgers.
"No, no. It's fine."
Coulson nodded seemingly happy with himself. "It's a vintage set. It took me a few years to collect them all. Near mint slight foxing around the edges,-"
"Like Romanoff said Rodgers," I said, directing their attention towards me. "He's very proud." I said smirking. Coulson turned to me giving me a hard look. He looked like he was about to get angry with me.
"We got a hit ! Sixty seven percent match... Wait, cross match, seventy nine percent." Agent Sitwell interrupted us.
Coulson turned all business. "Location ?" He asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding sir." He had a confused look by the end of his statement.
"Captain, Ivanov, you're up." Fury declared. I nodded and turned to Rodgers. He nodded at me and we both started towards a quinjet. "Romanoff will fly you."
"So, Cap, settling fine ?" Tash decides to make some conversation. No matter how much Tash denied it, I could tell that she had the hots for Rodgers. I smirked but kept to myself.
"It's a bit difficult ma'am, considering that I'm from a different century." He smiled sadly to himself.
Tash turned and gave him an apologetic look. "I know what you mean. When I first came to America, I had to read up about everything that happened." I frowned to myself once she told him about her past. "It's quite difficult."
Rodgers nodded. He stayed silent for a bit, looking down at his feet. I knew where this conversation was going... Those dirty little people, and in my presence too ! "Could you," He started but stopped and blushed. I smiled amused at him urging him to continue. "Could you maybe," He began to bite his lip for a second. "Help me sometime ?" He asked. I smiled at his innocence. He was blushing even harder once he noticed me looking at him, and I chuckled to myself.
I could practically feel Tash's smile. "Yeah... Yeah I'd like that."
Rodgers let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. There was only one outcome for this, and it was more adorable than a puppy. I shook my head and I looked out the window.
"We're here." Tash announced. "Agent Ivanov, will you go down and listen to what he's saying." I nodded and dropped down leaving those two love birds alone for some... Alone time.
"Kneel before me." A man said. I assumed it was Loki because of his outfit, if you can even call them that. He looks like a goat if you ask me. Loki began to get angry. I enabled the speaker part of my bluetooth, so that Rodgers and Tash could hear. He began to make multiples of himself and kept the crowd in one place. "I said. KNEEL !"
Everyone began to kneel and I kept hidden in the shadows knowing that he can't see me.
I think he needs an evil mastermind monologue. "Is this not simpler ?" There it is. "Is this not your natural state ? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation." I predicted that there was a man, older man, going to object to this monologue. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity." Suddenly, he smiled, looking superior. "You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."
As I predicted, an older man stood up. "Cap, get down here now." I whispered, knowing that he could hear me.
"Not to men like you." The old man stood looking heroic.
"There are no men like me."
The old man shook his head. "There are always men like you."
"Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example."
"Cap !" I shout-whispered into my ear again. Loki sends a beam out but Rodgers jumps out and blocks the older man with his shield and Loki fell down, angry. I stood and walked over beside Rodgers. "Stay close, Tash. I'll call you when we're ready." I whispered on my way over.
"Yes, ma'am." She replied teasingly and I smirked to myself. I gave Loki an angry look once he stood up.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing." Rodgers commented, making his way towards Loki with me following him.
"The soldier and the succubus. A man out of time and a seductress. Such an odd pair." He said the last as an after thought.
"Says the one who's known as 'the God of Lies'." I quirked an eyebrow pretending to be unphased by what he said. "Tash." I whispered.
Steve started to glare at Loki. "I'm not the one who's out of time." I could feel the wind blowing into us from above.
Tash came down and withdrew a machine gun from the quinjet. "Loki, drop the weapon and stand down." She demanded. Loki stood idle for a second before bringing his scepter and sending a blast towards Tash. Tash dodges just in time. I turned around to glare at Loki again. Loki just want to keep all my glares to himself. Selfish Jerk.
Rodgers is first to react and tries to punch Loki, this results in Loki flinging him to the ground. I jump on Loki from behind. He throws himself back, crushing me into the ground. I, however, keep a tight hold on him. I wrap my arms around his neck as tight as I could and I wrap my legs around his waist as tight as I could. Loki stands and while he tries to get me off, I shout out, "RODGERS ! NOW !"
Rodgers throws his shield and it hits Loki right in the chest. We both go flying back and I hit my head off a stone wall. I could see my vision blur. Loki rushes back towards Rodgers leaving me with a bloody scalp.
"Aly !" I hear Tash shout from the quinjet but she can't do anything. I lift my head up to try and see what's going on with Loki and Rodgers.
Rodgers is losing the battle and is knocked down. Loki points his scepter's tip on Rodgers' helmet. "Kneel." Loki said. The way he said it sent chills up my spine. That never happens with me. I gulped and try to heave myself up with the help of the wall beside me.
I take out my gun and shoot Loki from behind. This distracts him and Rodgers gets his chance to attack. "Not today !" He shouts. Rodgers kicks out his leg and knocks Loki down.
"The guy's all over the place." Tash said.
Loki was about to get up again when I hear an AC/DC song come on. 'Shoot to Thrill' to be exact. I sighed to myself as I realize who it is.
"Agent Romanoff, did you miss me ?" Tony Stark asked teasingly. I brought my hand up to my head to try and stop the bleeding.
Rodgers and Loki look up to see Iron Man come swooping in and point all of his weapons. As he does this, Rodgers comes over to me and helps me walk over.
"You alright ma'am ?"
"Just fine." I nod, breathlessly.
"Make your move, Reindeer Games." Stark said, slightly threatening. Loki looks at him astonished at all his weaponry that Stark has and puts his hands up. His goat armor materializes away into nothingness. Magic ? "Good move." Stark puts away all his weapons and turn to Rodgers and I.
Rodgers nods his greet. "Mr. Stark."
"Captain" Stark replies coldly.
His helmet comes off to reveal his smirking face. "Tony Stark," His hand reaches out, awaiting my hand. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."
"Agent Ivanov." I replied, shaking his hand. I still had my arm captured by Rodgers' hand.
Stark nods. "Oh, another Agent ? Y'know, I've never met so many people named Agent in my life. S.H.I.E.L.D must like people named Agent. Tell me, is there something different about them ?" His words came out like a tidal wave.
"Yes. They're all have great minds, capable of fighting with 8 different fighting styles, attractive, and they all have to be the most cold-hearted people anyone will ever meet." I said sarcastically.
"Did you miss anything ?" Tony smirked at me. He was looking me up and down, the perv.
"Yes," I began. "They're all extremely off limits." I said, before climbing into the quinjet.
"Well," He got in too. "I do know how much I love a challenge." He said smirking at me.
I quirk an eyebrow. "Bring it on."