Chapter 14: Cerberus
Two hours was much too long to sit still and fester in a boiling pot of anxiety. Tyler couldn't quite understand why Natasha and Steve didn't say anything about her beating heart, because it sounded like thunder in her ears. The car drive lasted for what seemed an eternity, and it turned out that they weren't even close to the base. When the car slowed to a stop in the middle of the desert Tyler was worried they had run out of gas or something, but then she looked forward to see several men standing in front of a beat up, green helicopter. On their way out into the desert, Fury had called with some coordinates they were supposed to travel to and meet up with some Cerberus representatives— apparently the plan had changed. On top of the two hour car ride, they had another few hours of helicopter travel ahead of them, courtesy of Cerberus. Tyler wondered if they were simply going to fly in circles to confuse them into thinking the Cerberus base was further away than it was in reality. She hoped that wasn't the case or she'd probably blow a fuse of some sort.
The men around the helicopter were threatening, and they displayed machine guns, bullets, and grenades as if to proclaim their dominance over every single living creature. Something about that made her just a teensy bit hesitant to trust those men at their word. "I don't like this," she said under her breath.
"Neither do I," Natasha said as she parked the car and cut the engine. "But under our limited time interval, we don't have much choice."
"I have a feeling they planned it that way so that we'd squirm," Steve agreed. "However, they haven't had much time to come up with a flawless strategy either unless they anticipated that Tyler was going to steal a jet and fly over Algeria. We can still catch them off guard."
Tyler wasn't sure how to feel about that statement. Was it necessary to bring up the fact that she stole and crashed one of SHIELD's jets?
"If they don't realize we're holding tracking devices so that our team can find us," Natasha stated pessimistically. It was better to see the worst than get a person's hopes up just to let them down, although she probably unnecessarily scared Tyler senseless. She undid her seatbelt and stepped out of the car before either of her fellow agents could respond. Tyler swallowed back her nervousness and followed suit along with Steve.
Hot wind blasted at them from all sides and the burning heat of the sun pierced straight through their uniforms nearly the second they stepped out of the car. Though they had parked only about ten feet away from the men waiting to load them into the helicopter, Tyler already felt like she was going to burst into flames from the sun. It wasn't quite as bad as it was when she was with Clint, though. She felt a little used to it, not that it really made much difference. She was still wearing a black, full-body suit in weather that well exceeded one-hundred degrees.
As they approached the helicopter, a man stepped forward with his head held as though he owned the world. He was wearing a forest-green tank top that exposed his scar-covered arms and his lips were twisted into a condescending scowl.
"Which one of you is Stark?" the man asked in heavily accented English. Tyler's eyes widened slightly at the sound of his voice – she heard it before. She heard it the night Clint was taken captive.
"That depends on what you intend to do once you find out who it is," Steve said in a commanding voice. Tyler had learned quickly to listen to him if he ever used that tone, because that was when the Captain came out of hiding inside the polite old-timer.
The Algerian who spoke narrowed his eyes at Steve and then glanced to the side at both Tyler and Natasha. "Which one of you is it?" he asked.
Tyler's heart froze in her chest at the question. What would happen if they knew who the "Stark" was? She had a sickening feeling that their mission would end before it even began.
"We'll tell you when we make the exchange," Steve said a little more forcefully. The Algerian sized him up for a moment and huffed with a crooked half-smile.
"We'll see," he said in an amused tone that sent Tyler's stomach on a wild rollercoaster ride. He was obviously hiding something, but it seemed rather strange that he didn't know which one of them was Tony's daughter, especially because she was the only one at the logical age. Unless, of course, the Algerian was not informed or perhaps Cerberus didn't even know the relation to Tony they were looking for. When they had requested the trade for Tyler, they only said that they wanted the Stark that wasn't Tony. Something was telling Tyler that they were going blind toward enemies that had clouds about their own eyes, and it unsettled her. There was obviously a reason for them to so suddenly ask for her, and with such little preparation. Just what did they want her for?
The Algerian turned around, still with that smirk on his face, and motioned for the agents to follow as he loaded himself into the helicopter. Behind Tyler, as she followed Steve and Natasha, the men with the guns turned and trailed closely without leaving much space. Tyler felt as though they were walking into a steel trap with only one entrance and no exit, except for maybe death. She wished they had more time to prepare. Or even better, she wished that she never stole that damn jet in the first place.
Too late for regrets now, she told herself silently. Whether she liked it or not, Clint was in danger and she was the only chance he had, even if she was only being used as a bargaining tool. Cerberus was controlling the situation at that moment, but that didn't mean it would stay that way – especially with three of the best agents on the team. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Captain America. If anyone could break out of a highly guarded enemy base, it would be those three. Tyler only hoped she wouldn't get in the way.
On the helicopter the three agents sat side-by-side, surrounded by the armed Algerians. The one who spoke English sat in front of Steve, who was on Natasha's left. Tyler was on Natasha's other side, and had the joyous pleasure of being across from an unkempt looking fellow whose teeth were mostly gone, and those that weren't were either silver or a sickening creamy color. His gray-flecked beard was shaggy but trimmed, and his dark eyes shone brightly as he gave her a toothy grin that made her want to vomit. The other Algerians weren't in much better condition, aside from the English-speaker. These men were no agents, Tyler realized, but ragged rebels who probably specialized in dirty tricks and worldly pleasures. She wondered if Cerberus was even as dangerous of a group as Fury claimed them to be. Though they showed off a lot of fire power Tyler only felt intimidated by the greed and desire behind their black eyes.
Tyler's focus snapped out of her own mind and to the English-speaking Algerian when he barked out a short command in Arabic. Seconds later, the wind began to pick up as the blades of the copter began to rotate on their axis. It wasn't long before the craft was lifting in the air, leaving a cloud of kicked up sand in its wake, as well as the SHIELD car which had no one to drive it back to base. Tyler wondered for a moment whether or not they would return to retrieve it, but the Algerian's voice once again penetrated her thoughts.
"You, girl," he shouted above the roar of the helicopter. "What is your name?"
Tyler looked at him and nearly panicked. What was she supposed to say? She couldn't very well say who she was or she'd be a dead woman walking. And if she didn't say anything then the Cerberus rebels would be suspicious of her. She also didn't want to stick out above the crowd, so she didn't want to be like Tony – arrogant and loud. She nearly scared herself into silence, but for some reason when she thought of Tony and all of the biting remarks they exchanged, she remembered her quiet confidence she had with him. She tried to turn this situation into one of those with her father, for she always knew what to say to him.
"Perhaps I'll tell you if you tell me your name," she shouted back. This made the Algerian chuckle and his lips widened into a smile.
"They call me Agni," he responded. Again, Tyler wasn't sure what to say. She didn't really expect him to answer, but she supposed it didn't matter to him because he probably thought Cerberus had already won. She knew she couldn't tell him even her first name, but she had no code name to go by. She thought hard and quick for a name, but couldn't even imagine one, not until she suddenly registered the slight aching she felt in her left arm from the snake bite. She smiled then, for she thought of a name that would fit perfectly. She was not exactly the strongest person, but she had been able to develop a keen flexibility compared to a normal person, thanks to Natasha. She was also quite good at manipulating people which seemed to fit the name, at least to her.
"And I am Viper," she said. Beside her she thought she might have felt Natasha let out a breath, but the chopping of the copter was so loud that she couldn't be sure. In any case, she herself was quite proud with her quick thinking, and she was even glad that she had been bitten by that nasty fellow.
Agni's smile faded a bit and narrowed his eyes at her. "Not your real name, I would think."
"You'd have to be a fool to assume one of our agents would reveal their true identity," Steve shouted out before Tyler could respond. Agni's smile disappeared entirely and turned back into an irritated scowl.
"Indeed," he said and then leaned to his right to speak to the man seated there. That was the end of the interaction between Cerberus and SHIELD for the rest of the flight. Slowly, it seemed, the tension between the two sides increased until it was almost palpable. Tyler was in no way used to it, even if she and her father had sat in long and silent battles of will on a somewhat regular basis. At least then her life wasn't in the balance. Now, the tension was that of a rope pulled taught between two opposing forces. The battle of strength would continue until either one side let go or the rope snapped from the stress of being drawn too tight.
To escape the clash of wills, and the predatory stares of the man sitting in front of her, Tyler turned her gaze out of the open door of the copter and onto the ground below. They weren't flying too high, but the vantage was still breathtaking. There seemed to be patterns traced out in the dirt below that drew jagged lines and soft curls in the land. Tyler wondered what it was that caused the lines, and if Algeria was always such a treacherous terrain. Maybe a few thousand years ago it was a lush forest, but a drought took hold of it and choked the life out of every plant. The animals there would have adapted to the harsh climate change or died out.
Right then, Tyler felt like one of those animals. The state of her life had been progressively, yet suddenly shifting ever since she asked Tony to use one of his suits. The people around her were much stronger than she was, and her life was threatened though she had not yet even gone on a mission or been asked to kill anyone. It felt like everything was going too fast; she felt as though she could not adapt so quickly. She wondered if she would be a part of the creatures who died from the speed of environment change, or if she would be a lucky one to survive. She hoped that she would turn out like her newly adopted nickname. Snakes were extremely durable creatures; able to move about with little or no light, able to dig deep into the ground, able to fight, and able to survive long periods without food or water. She needed that strength if she was going to save Clint and live to see it.
Throughout the flight, the throbbing in Tyler's arm seemed only to worsen. She tried not to show it and tried even harder not to think about it, but what else could she keep on her mind? It was either focus on the pain or push herself into despairing thoughts. She found that she was unable to think of anything that was even in the slightest bit joyful. She tried to quiet her mind entirely, but that only served to make her antsy. She couldn't give away the fact that she was the one Agni wanted by fidgeting. It was times like those that Tyler truly wished it was socially acceptable to do handstands against the wall for long periods of time, never mind that she'd probably end up falling out of the helicopter. At least it would put an end to her miserable situation. Then again, that would also mean not saving Clint. She opted to remain buckled in the seat instead of standing on her hands, at least for the time being.
As the flight went on, her unrest continued to heighten. She thought that she hid it well, but she soon realized that she was being watched closely, and not just because she was a potentially dangerous SHIELD agent. It was subtle at first, just a few glances here and there, but then it became long looks. Agni was interested in her, much to her irritation and alarm. If he had figured out that she was indeed the Stark they wanted, the plan might fail to work. She might be separated from Steve and Natasha. So, in the hopes to deter his thought process from this, when he was in the middle of staring at her she turned her head and raised an eyebrow at him inquisitively. She wasn't sure if it worked, in fact she was almost convinced that it didn't, but Agni smirked and stopped staring at her which was good enough. Still, Tyler wanted to be off of that copter and it did not descend nearly soon enough for her taste. Nevertheless, she was thankful when it did.
The helicopter landed in what looked like a run-down military fort covered in sand. There were a few people milling about under crude canopies made from large sticks and worn material, but other than that it was empty. A few buildings and hangars promised more action inside than out. When the copter safely touched base, the Cerberus members all stood and waved their guns at their prisoners (at least that's what Tyler was beginning to think that they were) to get off. The agents didn't argue, although it was probably safe to say that in each one of their minds a different scene of the Cerberus base being destroyed by large explosions was flashing by.
The SHIELD agents were herded toward the closest building, made of stone that looked not at all impressive.
"Hey, hold on," Steve called to Agni just before he reached the door. The Algerian looked irritated as he stopped and turned around.
"Is something wrong, agent?" Agni asked, spitting out the word "agent" like acid.
"Yes," Steve responded sternly. He walked up to Agni so that he stood over him by almost half a foot. "Hawkeye is supposed to be here, in the open. The trade happens outside of the base."
Agni smiled. "You must have been given wrong information, my friend. The condition was only that your agent be visible upon your arrival."
Steve raised an eyebrow and looked around. "Which he's not."
Agni's smile only widened as he pulled out an overused communication device with a screen on it. He turned it on and after he pushed a few buttons, he turned the screen to face Steve.
"There, he's visible," Agni said with a small chuckle. On the screen was an image of Clint in a metal chair. The lighting of the small room he was in was horrible, with only a few dim and flickering lights swinging from the roof. It was difficult to see what sort of condition Clint was in, however it was obvious he was gagged and both his arms and legs were tied to the chair he was in.
"Bastards," Tyler hissed under her breath. Not only did they just play SHIELD for fools, but they were keeping Clint as though he were a dog. Tyler really expected no less, but it still pissed her off. She heard Natasha shift at her side and looked over to the senior agent.
"That wasn't the agreement," she stated in a monotone. Steve stepped aside a bit to look back at Natasha, which gave Agni the freedom to move around him. Agni walked up to Natasha and, almost exactly imitating Steve, he stood over her and looked down upon her like she was the scum of the earth.
"Your agent will be traded to you. Inside."
Without allowing for further protest, Agni turned around and continued to lead the way into the building. Natasha and Steve looked at each other for a split second before they decided to humor Agni's impregnable ego and follow. Tyler was unnerved by how far Cerberus was willing to bend the rules. Didn't they even consider the fact that there might be an army of SHIELD agents waiting to storm the base should the exchange go awry?
Obviously not. After a series of dank hallways filled with nothing but the echoes of the group's footsteps, Agni brought them to a large door guarded by two men sporting just as many firearms, if not more, as Agni's men. On the left wall was a table covered in a few empty bottles. No chairs were in sight. The guards said something in Arabic and Agni motioned for the SHIELD agents to stop. He responded to the guards and they exchanged a few words before Agni turned around and motioned to the SHIELD agents.
"Remove your weapons," he commanded. Steve just looked at him like he was crazy.
"No. Not unless you remove all of yours."
"I cannot allow you to bring those in here where you might try to use them to save your little friend without giving up the girl," Agni replied with strained patience. When he said "the girl" he nodded toward Tyler. "It will be easier for us all if you comply and avoid my having to force you to."
Tyler had the urge to point out that Agni probably couldn't force either Steve or Natasha to do anything, if only to provoke him, but she gave in to her better judgment and refrained from making the statement. Steve almost looked like he wanted to protest further, but they were outnumbered and didn't have the slightest idea where Clint was located. It was better to just listen and hand the weapons over, despite how much he hated to. Until he had no other option, he would not provoke a fight. So he removed the few guns he had brought with him. Tyler hadn't really noticed it before, but he had not taken his shield along and she wondered why that was. She had never seen nor heard of him going on a mission without it.
When Natasha handed her weapons to Agni as well, Tyler reluctantly removed Clint's gun from her holster. She really didn't want to give it up; she wanted to return it. But she supposed a gun was just a gun and he would probably get a new one if it mattered that much. Still, she would rather not go so deep inside the base without something to protect herself with. At least Steve and Natasha had enough experience to take the arms from one of the Cerberus agents if it came to a fight, which it most definitely would if they were to get both her and Clint out of there. She, on the other hand, had only been training for a little over two months. She would probably be standing in the background waving a flag and rooting for SHIELD while hoping no one decided to try to grab her because wouldn't that be a pickle? There would go the plan, right out the door.
All of Steve and Natasha's arms were discarded on the tabletop once it was cleared of the bottles, but when Tyler held out her gun Agni took it with a smirk and secured it inside his own belt. Tyler had no idea what to make of the gesture, but she was hardly given time to. Agni swiveled around and motioned for the guards to open the door. The guards obliged, and when there was room enough for Agni to step through, he began long strides down the hallway that the door led to.
Like the room Clint was kept in, the hallway was empty aside from a few dim, flickering lights hanging overhead. The walls seemed to be tarnished the same color as lime stains in a shower, despite its natural material being a dark gray. The ground below their feet was a mixture of metal slabs and patches of crumbled rock. There were a few holes in the ceiling from which water dripped onto the floor, and some streams of liquid on the walls that left trails of mold and rust. Once again, Tyler wondered if Cerberus was really the threat Fury had made the organization seem like.
It felt like hours walking through the narrow, dark passageway, but eventually the group reached a dead end. It was another large door this time left unguarded, but it was not a manual door. It was like the doors of SHIELD HQ and Tony's tower. Next to it was a scanner about the size of a sheet of printer paper. Agni stepped forward and placed his hand on the black screen. The square sprang to life and a green line of light passed across the surface as it registered Agni's handprint. After a moment, a small ping-like sound came from a speaker just below the screen, and a small, green light next to it flashed on. Agni moved so that he was standing in the middle of the floor as the metal door slid to the left and revealed a stream of bright light that nearly blinded Tyler.
She closed her eyes for a few moments and slowly opened them when the initial shock of the brilliance died down. In truth the light wasn't so bright, the hallway had just been so dark that it seemed unnatural for a room to be lit so well. When Tyler was able to focus on the room, she had to resist the urge for her mouth to hang open. Despite the very poor quality the Cerberus base had first seemed, this was like another universe entirely.
It wasn't a room the door opened to, but an elevator with glass walls that looked down into a large hangar that was full of fighter jets of the same caliber as SHIELD. The men tending to the planes wore clothes that were new and pristine, unlike the shoddy rags of Agni's men. Even the elevator itself seemed impossibly new and clean for Tyler's first impression of the Cerberus base. It was polished to a sheen and the technology was almost as advanced as Stark Tech… almost. There wasn't anything quite as advanced as Stark Tech.
Tyler's focus shifted abruptly to the people around her as she, Steve, and Natasha were herded onto the elevator. To her surprise, and also relief, only Agni and two of his men stayed on the elevator. There was room in the elevator for more, though. Tyler wondered if they were confident of their many agents in the floors below, or if perhaps she and her trainers really were prisoners and were being handed over to a new warden. Tyler would be fine with that only if this new guard was as short as Natasha when she wasn't wearing heels.
Once everyone was on the elevator, Agni leaned forward to push one of the many buttons on the left wall. Tyler noticed that he pressed the button that took the elevator to the lowest floor, and her imagination began to go a bit wild. They were going to be tossed into a den of rabid lions and killed simply because Cerberus wanted to laugh. What else would they keep so far below ground? There were twenty floors in all, and every one of them was below the level they were on—which was ground level. It didn't even seem possible that the Cerberus base was so large when it first seemed like an abandoned ghetto.
"We have over ten thousand agents on base right now," Agni spoke suddenly into the glass of the elevator as he stood feet shoulder width apart and hands clasped behind his back. He turned just enough to allow his prisoners to see his smirk. "In case you were wondering."
Tyler narrowed her eyes at him and wanted to make some sort of twisted face like the ones she used to give Tony, just to see his reaction. She was beginning to realize, however, the extent of which the situation had gone out of SHIELD's control. Not only the predicament with Clint, but also the entirety of Cerberus. How could something that enormous go so long without SHIELD's notice? Was the agency weaker than it was made out to be in the US? She had a hard time believing that. There had to be a legitimate reason for SHIELD to simply ignore a threat that was so eminent.
Tyler was awakened from her thoughts when the elevator slowed to a halt. Beyond the glass in front of Agni was a small, white room empty of anything except for a man clad in a white button-up shirt, black slacks, and glossy dress shoes. Unfortunately, he was taller than Natasha. When she saw how nicely he was dressed, Tyler realized just how out of place Agni and his men seemed in the more secretive part of the Cerberus base.
When the elevator door opened, it was on the opposite side from the original doors. Agni, who had been facing the used-to-be-back of the elevator, stepped out and walked up to the man in the room. Agni's two men motioned for the SHIELD agents to follow him out of the elevator. Agni only spoke a few moments in Arabic to the man waiting for them before he fell silent and stepped aside for the man to address them. Tyler wasn't sure what to think of him, but he seemed almost as though he was as rich and famous as Tony. His brown hair was heavily slicked back and curled at his neckline. His eyes were very dark and his skin was a perfect shade of golden brown. He was a super model. Why was every single higher-up agent a super model? Steve, Clint, Natasha, even Maria. It was just uncanny. Tyler was almost certain she could name more than just those four, too, but her thoughts were interrupted when the super-model spoke.
"Welcome, agents of SHIELD, to our humble abode," he said with a wide smile and his hands held out to his sides. His voice seemed almost impossibly deep for how skinny he was, and his accent was almost nonexistent. "I am Mahesh, and I'll be taking over the trade from here."
Tyler narrowed her eyes at Mahesh, a little surprised at how miniscule his accent was. Also his attitude. He was way too friendly for his line of work; he reminded Tyler a lot of Tony. For some reason she had the urge to slap his smug smile off of his face.
Steve looked as though he was about to say something, but Mahesh turned to Tyler and said "Now, if you'll come with me."
Before Mahesh could do anything, however, Steve stepped forward with a sharp, "Hold on a minute."
Mahesh paused in the middle of turning around and looked up at Steve with another smile. "Yes, Captain?" he asked with patience that was certainly faked.
"That is not how this trade works," Steve said darkly. Mahesh just smiled wider.
"Oh, but it does. This is where you stop, and she comes with us. We'll send out your other agent when we're sure noting is amiss."
"We finish the trade together," Natasha stated coldly. "That is how this works."
Mahesh looked at Natasha and his smile turned from phony patience to a more predatory-type grin. Like how the nearly toothless man had been staring at Tyler the whole helicopter ride to Cerberus' base. "Ah, Black Widow, I assume? It is a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Do I look like I'm in the mood for pleasantries?" Natasha inquired without letting any emotion into her voice.
Mahesh smirked. "No, you want your agent back. I will oblige as soon as we take this young lady with us-"
"She's not going anywhere without us," Steve repeated. "We are finishing the trade as planned: together."
Mahesh scowled at Steve and stared at him for a while as though to size him up. "Alright, you can come as far as the next door, but no further," he compromised. For some reason Tyler felt that was a little too easy. Just what was Cerberus planning? And didn't telling Steve and Natasha exactly where they would be halted somehow compromise their plan? It would be a shock if the two agents sat back and did nothing while the situation was wrenched from their hands. Everything about it was wrong, and Tyler's unease grew exponentially. She wondered again what they were planning for her.
"Fine," Steve said, but Tyler knew that it wasn't fine. He and Natasha were going to do something about it before they reached the end of the line Cerberus had drawn for them.
With the agents – somewhat – in agreement, Mahesh smiled and proceeded to the door that was behind him. He opened it with a scan of his left eye and then a four digit passcode. The base seemed to get more and more secure the further in they went. How would they get past so many person-specific locks?
The door opened to reveal a small hallway that was much like that of the ones on the helicarrier, only a little smaller. It was made of metal and very long with many other passageways branching off from the center one. Mahesh and Agni walked in front of the SHIELD agents while Agni's men followed behind. As Tyler glanced down the different hallways she realized that none of them seemed to have a visible end, and they were all empty. She and the others were the only ones who appeared to be in that part of the base. Unless there were Cerberus agents hiding in the ceiling and walls, but that was a little farfetched.
Mahesh led them down what seemed a labyrinth of passageways. Tyler was fairly certain he was taking them in a roundabout route to confuse them, but at that point she didn't care. She wanted to know where Clint was. It seemed strange to her that the image they saw of him was in an old, run-down room when they had moved from the shabby cover-up HQ to the true, vastly dangerous and well-kept HQ underneath. It would have made more sense for Clint to be on the surface, unless there was virtually no upkeep of the prison cells. That wouldn't be too surprising, she supposed.
When Tyler was nearly certain they had walked half a mile, Mahesh finally took them to a hallway with an end, and another door. Tyler was beginning to sense a theme. Why were there so many locked doors? What was Cerberus planning? She wouldn't stop asking herself that question until she knew. When they first arrived she thought that maybe they would use her as a ransom tool, but when she saw the real Cerberus base underneath the old, neglected building on the surface, she knew that couldn't be right. If they had enough money for such a place, they did not need any of Tony's billions. She had utterly no clue why they wanted her of all people. It wasn't as though she was famous in either the real world or the world of the shadows.
Before Mahesh opened the door, he turned to Steve and Natasha and said, "This is where you stop."
Agni's men stepped forward and grabbed onto Steve and Natasha's arms. Neither of the agents made a reaction, so Mahesh nodded slowly and walked up to the door. He typed in a combination on a keypad next to it and then removed a card from the pocket of his shirt. He swiped the card along the side of the keypad, and the door clicked. Just before he moved to push it open, a silent signal passed between the Captain and Natasha.
Steve turned around and punched one of Agni's men before he could make a reaction, and then engaged the other in hand-to-hand combat that didn't last too long. Of course Steve won. Meanwhile, Natasha was locked in a fist battle with both Agni and Mahesh that seemed to be matched evenly. Which was sad considering the men not only outnumbered her, but were older and so probably had more experience.
When Steve was finished with the other two men he stepped forward to help Natasha. Just when he was about to dive in to the action, however, Natasha spun around and kicked Agni in the head while she simultaneously elbowed Mahesh right between his legs. Both of the men fell down, one with a satisfying groan of pain, and the SHIELD agents wasted no time. They stripped the Cerberus agents of all their weapons.
Natasha grabbed as many hand guns and grenades as possible while Steve took the machine guns and strings of bullets that hung around the torsos of Agni's men. When all of the weapons had been successfully looted, Natasha handed Tyler the gun that Agni had taken from her. Tyler took it and frowned.
"Of all of that, this gun is all I'm getting?" she asked.
"Considering how much help you were just now," Natasha began.
"Oh, shut up," Tyler scowled, unsure of whether Natasha was being serious or not. She never could tell with her, which was a little unnerving. "Forget I asked. Let's just get out of here before we're noticed."
"Wonderful idea," Steve said from the frame of the door Mahesh had opened.
Natasha and Tyler followed him as he jogged through the corridor the entry had opened up to. Despite how far they were inside the base, there still seemed to be no men about. Tyler wondered if perhaps they were all in the rooms above them. It might be easy to find and release Clint, but how easy would it be to leave with everyone in one piece?
In answer to her question, as the group went around a corner they were met with about ten machine guns and several infuriating sneers. Tyler slowed to a stop and so did Natasha, but Steve kept running. Natasha grabbed Tyler and pulled her back around the corner as the men began to shoot at Steve. The shooting went on for a minute or two and steadily died down before it stopped altogether. When it was silent, Natasha walked around the corner with Tyler right behind. Steve waited for them to catch up and again the group jogged through the hallway toward their destination: Clint. There was only one problem.
"Guys," Tyler huffed between breaths. "Don't you think there was something suspicious about the way Mahesh was talking to you? Don't you think Cerberus planned for us to-?"
"There is no doubt," Natasha answered before Tyler could finish her question. "But right now we have to go along with it. Once we get to Clint we can change things up a little."
Tyler didn't exactly feel safe with that plan, but really what else were they going to do? They had absolutely no idea where Clint was, nor why Cerberus wanted her, nor why they were so adamant about not following the previously discussed negotiation plan. Tyler doubted that even Tony would be able to come up with anything brilliant at that point. Then again, she wasn't nearly as smart as him so she could be wrong. She almost wished he was there to come up with some crazy plan, but that thought vanished as she remembered his prideful arrogance. He would not have even made it into Agni's helicopter without blasting someone to pieces with his "clean energy."
As they were running through the halls, Tyler began to worry. There was no end, and the different paths that had once branched off of the main hall had disappeared. There was only one path. Was it a one-way labyrinth purposefully designed for trapping unsuspecting enemy agents? Tyler would not have been shocked at that point. Nor was she astonished when suddenly a Cerberus agent fell from the ceiling and landed square on Steve's shoulders. Another came down through what Tyler assumed to be a trap door and aimed for Natasha, but she was ready for him and kicked him into the wall before he could do anything. The hallway then erupted into chaos.
Cerberus agents appeared from seemingly nowhere and they could all be described as incredibly and annoyingly gun-happy. Whereas the agents from before didn't fire until it was too late, these ones came in screaming bloody murder and firing rounds as though they were attacking a dragon. The unexpected noise didn't seem to bother Steve and Natasha at all, for they were firing just as much and didn't show any emotion on their faces. At that point Tyler was certain that they could not be human, or perhaps she was just too human.
Thankfully the Cerberus agents had only come from in front of the group or Tyler would have been in their grasp without much fight at all. She stood there, frozen to her spot as she stared wide-eyed at the amount of blood Natasha and Steve were spilling. The thought occurred to her that perhaps she wasn't cut out for the life of an assassin, because she felt sick. The sight of the dead bodies, piling up in front of her…
A frantic shout from Natasha woke Tyler out of her trance. She looked at her trainer who was trying to shake off a Cerberus agent holding onto her from behind. Tyler realized that Natasha wasn't looking at her, though her eyes were pointed directly behind her. In just moments, Tyler's instincts kicked in to gear. She ducked a powerful fist that sailed over her head from behind, and she whirled around to see Agni with a bloody mouth and fuming eyes.
Before she could get the chance to point Clint's gun on him, he began to shower punch after punch in an attempt to unbalance her and then grab her. He was certainly fast and for a moment Tyler was afraid that he was going to hit her, but she could see what he was going to do before he did it. It was almost as though she had either fought him before or had years of experience under her belt. Perhaps it was because she had earlier fought Clint, and he was much faster than Agni. Whatever the case was, Agni was unable to land a single blow on Tyler, and his frustration was evident on his face.
He had not let his guard down, however, at least not yet. Tyler searched for a hesitation as she dodged his fists and feet as though she really was a viper, flitting to and fro across the desert sand. It wasn't that long before she found what she was looking for, and her left hand flashed out and grabbed Agni's wrist. In a perfect mirror of a move she had seen Natasha use on an agent during sparring practice, she twisted Agni's arm around his back in such a way that he was forced to fall to his knees. Then, she hit his head hard with her elbow and he fell forward, unconscious.
Tyler stood there breathing heavily as she slowly realized what just happened. She stared at Agni's unconscious body for a moment before she turned to see that Steve and Natasha were still struggling with a few opponents. She wondered for a brief second whether either of them saw what just happened, and then she realized something. Just ahead of the fighting, a door began to slide shut. It glided down from the ceiling to the floor.
Tyler wasn't sure where the door led to, but she knew that if it was closing then something important laid beyond it. Steve and Natasha were too busy with their opponents to stop the door or go through before it fully closed, so that left only one option. Without much thought of the consequences, Tyler sprinted past the two battles, and both times she took down one of the Cerberus agents on the outskirts of the fights. When she passed both Steve and Natasha's skirmishes and ran toward the closing door she was aware that Natasha was again calling out to her, but whatever she said didn't register. Tyler was much too focused on getting to the door before it closed and her chance of saving Clint disappeared for good.
The door was almost shut, and Tyler was still five feet away. There was enough room if she crawled, but there was no time for that. So instead, she chose to mimic a baseball player. She dropped down onto her right thigh with her legs pointed ahead of her and slid across the metal floor. She narrowly escaped the door, and felt ridiculously epic because she hadn't been crushed like she thought she would. She had only just made it through when the door shut, separating her from Steve and Natasha.
After she caught her breath for a moment, Tyler pushed herself to her feet and looked through a small, rectangular window in the door. Natasha and Steve had just finished fighting, and Natasha was the first to run over to the door and motion for Tyler to open it. Tyler looked around for a button, a switch, anything that would allow her to open the door, but there was nothing. She shook her head and Natasha stepped aside for Steve to try and lift the door. Tyler watched his strain with anticipation, but nothing came of Steve's struggle. The way was shut. There was no possible approach for Tyler to reunite with her trainers.
There was only one way out of the base, and it had just been closed. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't very well sit there and wait for Steve and Natasha to come up with something. That was too dangerous, she could be caught if she stayed put. She shot her senior agents an apologetic glance as she took out Clint's gun and flipped off the safety. As she turned around and began to walk down the hallway, she heard Natasha's fist bang on the door as she yelled for her to "get her Sleeping Beauty butt back over there until they figured out a way to meet back together." She couldn't, though, not when Clint was waiting for them. He could have been undergoing torture at that precise moment. Besides, there had to be a back exit. Natasha and Steve could go through the front and provide a distraction while Tyler and Clint escaped… Perhaps she was only hoping. She supposed Clint would know better than her, so she just had to find him.
The base seemed all the more intimidating while she was alone. The hallway was empty aside from her as she walked slowly forward with Clint's gun held out in front of her to give her an advantage if she came across anyone. She didn't know if she could really shoot another person, but it was life or death. She trusted her conscience not to get in the way of her pulling the trigger if she needed. Sort of.
As she walked silently along, or as silent as she could in the metal hallway, Tyler noticed that the lights seemed to be dimming. When she took a closer look, she also noticed that the quality of the walls was diminishing as well. Perhaps she was headed in the right direction, if Clint was supposed to be in a poorly lit room. She hoped she was, because there was only one way for her to go. It was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because she didn't have to choose between forks in the hallway, and a curse because if at the end of the never-ending hallway was her doom then she had no chance of avoiding it.
It again seemed a mile or two by the time she reached the end of the corridor, but that was probably due to her incredibly wild nerves. Not surprisingly, the hallway ended with a door. However this door was different. It had a handle and as Tyler tried to twist it open, it gave way with no resistance. That was a little suspicious, but she was much too far along to turn back. So she threw the door open and pointed Clint's gun ahead of her. What she saw beyond the door was not an army of Cerberus agents as she expected. Instead, the door opened to a decent sized room with a smaller room in the back. It was dark aside from a few lights that were hanging in the smaller room which had a large, rectangular window that gave view to the most blessed sight in all the earth. Clint.
He was tied up, gagged and bloodied, but he was alive. He looked up when Tyler ran forward to the glass. She had seen no obvious door so she figured that it would be best for her to simply shoot a bullet through the glass and shatter it. When Clint registered who she was, he made muffled sounds around the gag and began to buck his head toward the door Tyler had come from. Tyler paused and looked at him with a furrowed brow as she tried to figure out what exactly he was doing, but by the time she got the message it was too late. Behind her, the door slammed shut.
Tyler whirled around with Clint's gun pointed to the middle of the room behind her. She looked left and saw nothing. She looked right and saw nothing. But she felt something. Someone. She wasn't alone.
"Who's there?" she asked tentatively to the shadows. She was surprised and also glad when her voice didn't crack from the fear that was rising up like acid in her stomach. A chuckle sounded from the dark and Tyler's fingers tightened their hold on the gun.
"Well, you're certainly not what I expected," said a voice, icy and dark. It seemed to echo around the room for a few moments before the space again became silent. Tyler swallowed as she moved the gun toward where she thought the voice had come from. She expected its owner to remain hidden, but a figure stepped out of the shadows and into the poor light coming from the room Clint was being held in.
The figure was tall, maybe taller than her by half a foot. It was a man with black hair combed back from his face. He wore strange clothes, almost as though he had stepped out from some book that mixed modern patterns with medieval-style garments. His eyes glinted green in the light, and he smiled when he was fully revealed. Or, Tyler assumed it was supposed to be a smile. It sort of seemed more like a pleased smirk, and it did not serve to calm her nerves at all. She pointed the gun more directly at him and he stopped walking forward at the threat of being shot. He didn't seem to have any obvious weapons, which only confused Tyler. What was the sense of him locking himself inside a room with a person holding a gun when he himself didn't have any weapons? Perhaps he figured that she couldn't hit the broadside of a barn with a canon. Or maybe there were guns installed in the room that she couldn't see. Given that she was deep inside an evil secret organization, she would be worried if there weren't guns installed in at least one of the rooms on the base.
With nothing better to say, she asked kind of dumbly, "So what are you supposed to be? A psychotic cosplayer?"
The man in front of her huffed. "For your security, we shall go with that."
For some reason that did anything but calm Tyler down, only she didn't let him see that. Instead she narrowed her eyes and replied, "I don't need to be safeguarded. Who are you and what do you want?"
The man paused a moment with a slight frown. "So the man in the iron suit didn't speak to you of me? How insolent of him."
Tyler furrowed her brow. There was only one person "the man in the iron suit" could be. "You know my-" Tyler stopped herself before she finished that statement. Of all the things, she did not want this man to know her relation to him. "You know Tony?"
If the man caught her fairly obvious stutter, he showed no sign of it. Instead, he began to slowly walk to Tyler's left. Tyler followed him with the entirety of her body, sure to keep the gun pointed at him at all times.
"I've met with him a few times," he replied. He stopped walking when Tyler had turned a quarter circle. "But I've never met you."
Tyler expected him to say more, but instead he remained silent and pinned her down with a scrutinizing stare. Tyler shifted a little under his green gaze, but she did not look away. She could not. It seemed an eternity before the man spoke with a smile.
"Now I remember," he said, his voice as smooth as butter. "There was a picture in his tower of him and a little girl. That was you, wasn't it?"
Tyler new only one thing: she could not tell the truth. She hoped her muscle-whatever-ability allowed her to flawlessly act now that she knew she had it, because she was about to come up with an excuse on a whim, and she had never been as good at that as Tony. She could smack-talk and bluff fairly easily, but when it came to straight up lying– it was safe to say that was not her strong suit.
"No, I think that would be his sister," she explained, "Elizabeth. I've only spoken with Tony a few times before."
She thought she heard Clint groan from the other room, but she didn't look. She didn't have to, because she didn't sound convincing even to herself. The man in front of her could clearly tell, as his smile only widened.
"You didn't inherit his ability to rattle off bothersome fabrications, I see," he stated icily. Tyler raised an eyebrow.
"I take it you two don't get along very well, then."
She was not surprised. After all, Tony never got along with anybody unless he was drunk at a party. Then he got along fine with everyone until it was Pepper telling him to take a long walk off of a short pier.
"We had a few disagreements," the man confirmed. "Only minor issues." Why did Tyler feel like that was a lie? He began to circle her again, this time to her right. She followed him just as closely as the first time. She didn't know what he was trying to accomplish, but she was getting tired of his searching gaze. It felt as though he was looking directly into her soul, and that was really creepy. When he stopped again and it was apparent that he wasn't going to say anything else, she spoke in a clear and commanding voice that she hoped was at least somewhat close to Steve's.
"Were you the one who instigated this trade?"
"Indeed."
Tyler did her best not to glare at him. "Why?"
He only huffed with an infuriating, all-knowing smile. "If I told you that I'd have to end your mortal life."
"Pitiful excuse," Tyler hissed. "I will shoot if you don't cooperate."
"That will call the whole base onto you and your trussed-up agent over there," he said and once again began to saunter slowly around the room. "Oh no, I don't think you're willing to do that. Not yet. You've been with SHIELD for what? A year? Less? Hardly enough time to turn into a monster like the company you keep."
"And how would you know whether I'm capable of killing or not?" Tyler asked incredulously.
"I can see it in your eyes, love," the man replied in a deep voice that caused Tyler to shift uneasily.
"Perhaps I'm just a talented actress," she offered haughtily.
That only made the man laugh. "As I could see from your earlier performance."
Tyler gave up at trying to seem somewhat civil and just glared at him, but his smirk did not fade. He seemed unfazed by the fact that she was the one holding the gun. Perhaps she should change that? She didn't know how. If she shot at him it was very likely that she would accidentally hit him somewhere that could kill him. While she had received some training with a gun, she did not know nearly enough to shoot close to him and miss him. That would be in Natasha or Clint's range of ability, not hers.
"If you aren't going to tell me what your interest is in me, then I suppose I don't need you anymore, do I?" she asked instead.
"I don't think you really needed me in the first place," he replied matter-of-factly.
"But you need me. Why?"
The man smirked. "Wrong. I don't need you."
Tyler gritted her teeth and growled with exasperation, "Then why the hell did you go through all of this trouble to find me?"
The man didn't answer. Tyler's fingers once again tightened on the gun.
"You're trying my patience."
"Not that you have so much to begin with, if you're Tony's daughter." He smiled as he watched her for a reaction. "That is what you are, correct?"
Tyler sucked in a deep breath and tried not to show any response. She supposed it really wasn't all that hard to put together considering her and Tony's relevant ages, but it still bothered her that this man figured it out when only a select handful of people were ever told. She wondered if there were others out there who knew of her existence. Perhaps others that were more dangerous.
"You are," the man said when Tyler remained silent. "How interesting. He certainly doesn't strike me as one to have children. Perhaps you were an accident?"
Tyler clenched her jaw, but otherwise refrained from replying.
"No," the man said and stared at her with all traces of his smirk removed as he tried to figure her out. "You weren't a mistake. But he still treats you as one?"
Tyler was getting awfully close to pulling the trigger.
"Yes, that's it. He's neglecting to treat you like his child. How long has that been going on? A few years, perhaps? Maybe more? Or it could be that he never treated you like his daughter."
"Are you done?" Tyler hissed. The man only smirked.
"For now, perhaps. Oh, but where are my manners? I never introduced myself." He bowed low. "I am Loki of Asgard."
Tyler froze.
Loki.
That was Loki.
The Loki that destroyed New York? The Loki that caused an alien attack that killed countless people, ruined buildings, and nearly ended her father's life? The Loki that was supposed to be imprisoned in another galaxy?
That Loki.
The Loki that messed up Clint before, was now messing with him again.
That would be the Loki.
The Loki that everyone wanted to kill. And just for good measure: Loki. Because she hadn't said his name to herself enough.
"You were wrong," Tyler whispered with a dark glare. "Tony did tell me about you."
Loki stood up straight and tilted his head to the side. "Is that so? I'm curious, what did he-"
Whatever the Asgardian god was going to say, it was lost as Tyler pulled the trigger and the gun exploded with a loud BANG! The bullet hit him square in the chest.
Tyler, naturally, expected some sort of shout of pain or surprise, or maybe some blood. That wasn't too farfetched of an idea, was it? Yet, Loki made no reaction. He just stood there staring at her with an inquisitive eyebrow raised up on his forehead.
"Are you satisfied?" he asked.
Tyler just stared at him with wide eyes. That hit him, she saw it. There was no way she missed him, not even a single chance. She was standing much too close to him to miss. She pulled the trigger again, just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. The bullet, Tyler noticed, hit him and bounced off of him. Loki just sighed.
"You're wasting your time," he stated with a hint of impatience. Tyler didn't care. She wanted to see something happen, never mind that the bullets were somehow being deflected. Perhaps it was the armor he was wearing. This time when she pulled the trigger, she aimed right for his head, and it had the desired effect.
Loki jerked his head to the side in enough time to save himself from a bullet in the face, but the projectile still grazed his cheek and drew blood. It was just a small scratch, but it was something. Tyler smirked as Loki turned his head toward her and glared at her. She was about to shoot again when he leapt forward and grabbed onto the gun. He pushed it up toward the ceiling just as Tyler's finger tightened around the trigger.
The bullet ricocheted off the metal and to the side of the room before it stopped. Tyler and Loki stood there, both of them staring each other down.
"I would advise you to let go," Tyler warned.
Loki smiled. "Or what?"
Tyler didn't even bother to give him an answer. She just grabbed onto Loki's wrist like she had done with Agni and twisted his arm around his back. In the process, Clint's gun fell to the floor and was forgotten. Loki didn't fall to his knees as Agni did, and he easily spun and thrust the elbow of his free arm toward her face. She had to let go and jump backwards to avoid being hit. She didn't let her recovery last too long, however, and she was the first to leap toward him with a few well-aimed punches and kicks. Every one of her attacks were blocked and Loki didn't seem at all daunted.
In fact, it was as though he was holding back just to see what Tyler was capable of. When she herself wasn't sure how far she could go, that was slightly worrisome. As she fought him she became aware of his reaction time to her punches. He was faster than her and stronger than her; she knew she couldn't win the fight. But she couldn't sit back and do nothing when Loki was the only thing standing between her and Clint.
"You seem a little nervous," Loki quipped between blows.
Tyler chose not to acknowledge the statement.
"Tense, even," he continued.
Tyler jumped up and round-house kicked Loki in the face, except again he blocked her blow.
"Perhaps you should relax a bit? Get a massage or eat some of that food you mortals refer to as ice cream."
Tyler aimed punches toward his face and gut, which were of course all blocked.
"Magnificent invention, by the way. One of the few of this land."
Finally, Tyler decided she was fed up with this god of idiocy, or "mischief" as most other people called it.
In a split second decision, she decided to pull out one of the many tricks she had seen Natasha use as she trained with another agent. It was during the same session that Tyler had seen the trick she used on Agni. She wasn't sure if she was nearly strong or flexible enough to do it, but she was going to try nonetheless.
Tyler bounced back a few steps and focused on the way she remembered Natasha had moved. It took only a moment, and then she closed the space between her and Loki in a two second sprint, used her momentum to jump up and wrap her legs around his neck, and then twisted so that he fell to the ground on his back. Tyler had no idea how she was able to accomplish the move so flawlessly, but she actually landed on her feet when she was finished.
She wasn't given time to be proud of herself, however, because Loki retaliated a lot more quickly than she expected. While he was still on the ground he spun around and kicked her legs out from under her so that she fell on her back. As he stood up with a smirk, she rolled backwards and onto her feet, and then ran at him again. This time when she went to punch him, he grabbed onto her fist and pushed her into the closest wall.
"You were never taught that, were you?" Loki asked. He had his suspicions while they were fighting, but after that stunt he knew something was different about her. She wasn't like the other Midgardians he had seen.
Tyler ignored him again and used her free hand to try to punch him in the gut, but he caught that hand and along with the other one held it above her head against the wall. She growled at him and tried to get him off of her by driving her knee into his crotch, but he was too close. It was humiliatingly ineffective. She glared at him with a defiant fire in her eyes, and he grinned.
"Well you don't surrender easily, I'll give you that much."
"Are you going to tell me what the hell you want with me or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" Tyler hissed. Loki smirked and just watched the anger and frustration in her eyes for a moment. He admittedly wasn't sure what he wanted with her when he first decided to hunt her down, but since he had seen and interacted with her he had a good idea.
"You'll just have to be patient," he chuckled.
Tyler scowled and debated whether or not she should try to bite him. Perhaps that would get him to let go of her. She wouldn't ever find out, though, because what Loki did next halted all possible reactions to her situation.
Loki leaned in close to her ear, and his grip on her arms tightened. She tried to pull away, but could not. Loki then began to whisper something in a language Tyler had never heard before. As soon as he uttered the first word, his touch on her left arm became cold even through her bandages, and his breath felt like ice as it brushed across her skin. She gasped at the suddenness of the change and a shiver ran down her body. As Loki continued to chant in whatever language he was using, his breath seemed to continue to drop in temperature. It got to the point where it became painful. Tyler had to clench her jaw and virtually every muscle in her body to avoid crying out as the pain only worsened with each word. She would have tried to push Loki off of her again or demand to know what he was doing, but she was paralyzed to the spot.
The pain soon became excruciating and Tyler squeezed her eyes shut in a last attempt to remain silent, but it did not work. She cried out as the burning cold sensation ran through her veins to her entire body. Her neck arched in agony and her whole reality became focused on only one thing: Loki's voice as his chanting into her ear continued. She didn't understand the language, but it still seemed to paint a picture in her mind. A picture of a harsh world made of nothing but jagged ice and frozen peaks. An eternal blizzard seemed to rage through the land, wild and untamed. She could hear the moans and grunts of creatures not heard of by anyone on earth, and though it was daytime there was no sun. The sky was dark as though a thick blanket of storm clouds suffocated the planet. She had never seen such a place before, but for some reason she felt a connection to it. Like she'd been there, or maybe seen it in some movie, or read about it in a book.
The connection was lost, however, when Loki stopped chanting. Tyler was wrenched back to the dark room and she cried out as she remembered her pain. Loki let go of her and took a step back. Without the support, Tyler slid down to a crouching position and grabbed ahold of her left forearm where she still felt Loki's icy touch. She buried her head into her knees and tried her best to calm her breathing down, but could not.
In front of her, Loki smirked. "You'll thank me when it's over, if you survive."
Tyler was ready to rip out his throat. She was ready to gut him like a fish. And she would have, if her agony was not so great. She fought to stay awake, but the burning cold did not go away, not even for a few seconds. She was aware that Loki turned and left the room, and that he closed the door behind him. But after that, she fell to the floor unconscious. In her last moments of wakefulness she hoped the next to enter the room were Steve and Natasha, not any Cerberus agents. That would make the situation a whole lot more complicated than she cared to deal with.
(A/N): Wow... I haven't posted since... Too long. I cannot express my absolute horror. Lol. Truly, though, I'm sorry. School was very hectic this year. It's over, though! Now I have hours upon hours to write, and I will hopefully be able to post a chapter every week instead of every few months. And perhaps you guys can give me a couple of reviews? :D Even if you only want to yell at me for not posting in such a long time.
Oh! So I revised chapter one, and am going to revise the rest of the chapters as well. Only minor parts will change and it won't affect the overall plotline, so you don't have to go back and read it. For those of you who have only just begun to read the story, however, there are indeed a few things in the first chapter that contradict with things I've said in the later chapters. I apologize and I am in the middle of fixing it.^^
Well, that's all for now, folks~
-KC