WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The phrase "together or not at all" comes from my high school band program that Reagan and I were both apart of. We overuse this phrase so much it's become more of a joke.
Chapter Nine: Can We Go Home Now?
Reagan exited the quinjet on her hands and knees, she was pale and shaking. "Next time, I fly the jet."
Ashlie walked off, she was holding a piece of the jet tightly in her hands. "I never want to fly ever again."
"We're walking back to the states, we'll swim back. We'll face the sharks." Reagan and Ashlie laid down, their hands covering their eyes from the sun. "Together," Reagan breathed out, "or not at all."
Ashlie took a deep breath. "Okay, we get five more seconds. Then we find Claire."
Reagan sighed, "Okay. One. Two. Three. Four."
"Five."
Ashlie and Reagan roll up groaning. In front of them there was a small lake, in the middle was a boat.
"You ever think," Reagan and Ashlie started walking toward the dock, "that this is just a really weird drug trip, and right now were at your hotel, high?"
"The thought has crossed my mind, but then again, we don't do drugs."
"There's a first time for everything." Reagan and Ashlie took off their shoes and socks. They put their phones down too. Just as she did, Ashlie's phone rang, it was a blocked number. "How much do you want to bet?"
Ashlie answered the phone, "you can't stop us."
"We're not going to stop you; we're coming to help you." Natasha said. "We all think it's very courageous what you've done." In the background Bucky says, "I think it was kind of stupid." Something was thrown and an "ow" was heard. "Shut up, listen, we just wanted to keep you safe, we didn't mean to exclude you." Ashlie and Reagan looked skeptical at each other, why would the scary, badass lady be apologizing?
"Whatever you say." Ashlie put the phone down without hanging it up. Natasha continued to speak while the friends jumped into the water.
"So why don't you...damn." Natasha hung up the phone. "They hung up?" Tony asked. "They went into the water. Do they know they're going to get themselves killed?"
Bucky ran his fingers through his hair. The thought of Ashlie in danger made his hand twitch, wanting to punch the nearest thing. The nearest thing being a female assassin he instead took a deep breath and continued walking. Ever since Ashlie had fallen into his life he found himself thinking more about the future, he was never that kind of guy. He always had been 'in the moment'. In his normal time, his pre-Winter Soldier time, the future wasn't guaranteed, he was in the middle of a war America was losing. Thinking about the future made him nervous, he concentrated on the present, where he could laugh and pretend everything was alright. But with Ashlie the future didn't seem so scary, except a future without her. Bucky wished that there was time to talk to Steve, he seemed to be going through something similar.
As the team boarded the one jet Bucky got cramped next to the spider boy and Natasha. "So," the spider boy spoke up, "I don't know if it was implied, but I call dibs on Reagan."
Ashlie and Reagan climbed into the boat, they hadn't met any sharks so they called it an unqualified success. Sadly, that was the easy part. As they walked on the deck a man, eating a burrito, stopped in his tracks when he saw them. He grabbed his radio and started to speak. Reagan and Ashlie looked at each other, nodded, then ran screaming at the man. They knocked him over.
A door opened and another man came out, he was looking down at his phone. "Jim, you alright?" Jim opened his mouth to speak but Reagan pushed the burrito in his mouth.
"Yeah," Ashlie said in a deep voice, "I'm good. I...saw a fish."
"You scream like a girl." The man laughed and turned back inside, the door closed behind him.
Reagan kept the burrito shoved in the man's mouth. "I can't believe that worked."
"We need something to tie him with." Ashlie stood and grabbed a lifebuoy, she pushed it down over the man's shoulders and tied the rope around his hands. Reagan and Ashlie pushed Jim to the side of the boat and tied off the rope to a pole. "Stay." Jim mumbled something. Reagan grabbed the burrito from his mouth.
"What?"
"I don't sound like that."
"It convinced your friend." Jim rolled his eyes. Reagan started to stuff the Mexican food back into his mouth.
"You know I'll yell once I finish this burrito." Ashlie and Reagan looked to each other, they did not seem worried.
"That will be plenty of enough time." Ashlie and Reagan left Jim there with a face full of burrito, tied to the side of a boat. "Let's find Claire."
Steve was the first off the jet, though if it was his eagerness or Stark's endless talking was debatable.
"I'm just saying that Claire went to the coffee shop that happens to be on Cap'n work out street and nobody is connecting any dots here. And she was a student at Pratt University where we all spoke, remember? And where did our fearless leader go after that? Do you know? 'Cuz I do, said coffee shop." No one was listening to the Iron Man. "Seriously people."
"Tony, let Steve have this." Natasha tightened her glove. "He likes her." Tony put his machine hands up to his mouth in shock. He jumps up and down.
"Do you think they'll double date with Pepper and I?"
"No." Steve yelled from the front of the pack. Though he hated Tony's comments on his romantic life he couldn't help but smile at the possibility that he might have one.
At the end of the dock there laid the girls shoes and phones. The boat, however was gone.
"There had to have been something here." Clint looked around at the calm water. N "F.R.I.D.A.Y. check to heat signatures. Where are Ashlie and Reagan?" "Sir," the robotic voice responded, "it seems they are in the water."
"Steve, don't do anything-" Steve dove into the water. "Alright."
Underneath the water Steve swam deeper, he saw the sunken boat and pushed himself harder. There was a man floating tied to the side of the boat, desperately trying to pull himself free. Steve grabbed the rope and ripped it apart. The man floated to the surface.
Next in the water was Tony. He blasted himself next to his friend. "Second floor." Steve nodded and Tony made the door to the boat disappear. Inside the water was quickly rising, Tony flew through, he quickly found Ashlie and Reagan. They pointed over to another room. "Cap'n, you take the girls so I can-" Steve ripped the door off its frame. "Or, you could do that. Ladies," he addressed Ashlie and Reagan, "hold on." They did and he flew them out of the sunken boat.
Tony emerged from the water with Ashlie and Reagan. He set them down gently, as they coughed up water. Bucky immediately went to Ashlie's side and Peter to Reagan's.
"Please never do that again." Bucky put a hand on Ashlie's knee.
"No promises." Ashlie choked out. Bucky rubbed her soaking back.
Peter had grabbed a jacket from the quinjet and wrapped it around Reagan's shoulders. "Next time you decide to go swimming, please invite me." Reagan laughed as she clutched to Peter's suit.
"I should have called dibs earlier." Pietro whispered to his sister.
"Where's Claire?" At that moment Steve emerged from the water, Claire's head bobbed above the water. He pushed her up onto the dock, a poll and handcuffs attached to her wrist. Her eyes were closed and it appeared that she wasn't breathing. Steve started CPR while Ashlie and Reagan started to explain what happened on the boat.
Ashlie and Reagan snuck down the stairs and entered the first room they saw. The lights were off.
"This boat is a lot bigger than I expected, it might take longer to find Claire." Reagan turned on the lights. They spun around and there was Claire sitting criss cross, with duct tape around her mouth, and handcuffed to a metal pole. "Oh, hey."
"Claire!" Reagan tore the duct tape off her friend's mouth. Claire's eyes were closed.
"And that's when the squirrel realized his mistake." Her voice cracked on almost every word, her voice was soft and distant.
"Claire, Claire. It's Reagan and Ashlie. We're here to rescue you."
"You said that yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that." Reagan patted her friend's hair.
"You're on hard drugs, Claire."
"Probably."
Ashlie looked around the room. She checked every drawer, every cabinet, but there was no key.
"I can't find a key." Ashlie said.
"Claire," Reagan pushed her head up so her eyes were more open, "Claire, where are the keys?"
"Why does nobody appreciate my stories? They're good stories." Claire whined.
"They are, Claire. We love your stories, now tell us where the key is." The door opened and a man walked in with a tray of food.
"What? I need backup!" The man yelled."Reagan, do something." Ashlie was farther away from the man. "Sorry, I don't have any burritos on me at the moment."
"Well, well, well. You two have made today interesting. Claire was just telling us an utterly boring story about a squirrel and an underpaid mailman." The man scratched the small beard he had.
"You're an underpaid mailman." Claire grouched. The man laughed.
"You work for Ultron?" Ashlie asked.
"No, I work with Ultron. I am nobody's sidekick. I'm the main guy." Reagan and Ashlie shared a look of disbelief and annoyance. At that moment they seemed to communicate without words.
'We need to stall.'
'Then let's stall.'
"Not really, everything that happened has happened because Ultron got his robotic panties in a twist." Reagan blocked Claire from the man. "Plus we don't even your name."
"My name is Simone."
"That's my aunts name." Ashlie said, she put a hand on her hip.
"Really?" Reagan asked. "I have a cousin Simone. She just graduated high school."
"Is this the one in California?"
"No, that' s Katie, this one is in Hawaii."
"Oh, Simone. I remember, she was the one with the really cute boyfriend." Simone looked between the two girls and discovered why they were friends with Claire, none of them would shut up.
"Alright, that's enough-"
"Excuse you, we're not done." Reagan waved off Simone. "I know, we need to go to Hawaii, that's were all the cute guys are."
"We'll have to wait, I spent all of my money on this trip. Not that is hasn't been eventful, but I think I need a little change of scenery." With that last sentence Ashlie had been grabbing the nearest object, a flash light. She threw it at Simone's head. He stepped backward, Reagan slammed the door closed and locked the door. She stuck her tongue out at Simone who was holding his forehead.
"Nice shot."
Simone stared at Reagan for a second before getting a call, he talked for a while, then smiled at Reagan.
"Uh-oh." Reagan watched Simone run away. "What?"
"Simone smiled."
"Simone smiled. That's stupid."
"Simone has a stupid smile."
"And he's a smartass."
"Squirrel." Claire said.
A loud boom sounded and the boat shook. Reagan, Ashlie, and Claire fell. Reagan opened the door. "Shit! We're sinking." Ashlie ran over to Claire and tried to rip the handcuffs off her.
"Ow." Claire cried."I know it hurts, but they have to come off.""Guys, this ship is sinking fast."Ashlie looked at her two best friends in the world. "You go; I'll try to get Claire out."
Reagan didn't hesitate to say, "no, I'm staying. Together or not at all."
"Whoo!" Claire attempted to raise her hand in agreement.
Ashlie shook her head."You band kids take that motto WAY to seriously."