So it goes with saying that only things I own with any connection to MARVEL I bought on Ebay or Etsy. MARVEL COMICS & MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE are their own creatures and I have nothing to do with either of them aside from the fact I enjoy reading or watching them, and am grateful for the ability to play in their world. I claim nothing, and I receive nothing for this, expect the pleasure of putting something out into the world.

You can also find this story on ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN under the same title and pen name along with a place to post suggestions.

Don't forget to check out the Photobucket album listed on my profile page too. (My apologies. I didn't realize FF removed the links. I have corrected the problem in what way I can, so for those who like the visual additions, feel free to check them out.)

DAY FOUR

CHAPTER NINETY FOUR

FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012

0702 HOURS

S.H.I.E.L.D HELICARRIER

INTERNATIONAL WATERS OFF EAST COAST, USA

STEVE

It started with me searching for the woman who left the note. Find me. That's all that was written but that's not all that was said. That collar sitting on top of it might as well have been a novel for all it told me.

I'd been suspicious ever since Agent Coulson said he would look for information on Nora. I never mentioned a gender in that conversation, but he used the words 'she' and 'her' anyway. I ignored it though because Nora's last name, Eliane, does sound like it would belong to a woman a little more than a man.

But I'd been ignoring a nagging feeling all night and I was done with it. Something was wrong, and that collar told me someone else felt the same way. That's why I started looking for Natasha.

I got sidetracked at the soft yelp that caught my ear as I was passing the lab. Apparently recklessness was still a Stark trait, though I don't remember Howard being stupid enough to openly try and draw out a monster.

The conversation with Banner and Stark sent me on a slightly different hunt. One of higher priority that ended up with distasteful results.

S.H.I.E.L.D was making energy weapons. They were modernizing HYDRA technology, as if a weapon that could vaporize a man in a second needed to be more powerful, let alone exist at all!

I ended up finding Natasha in that argument, or more accurately she ended up finding me when she showed up to take Banner somewhere else. I planned to talk to her about my own questions if the hostility ever settled, but then a bomb went off and the floor fell out from under us.

Things suddenly got very simple: there were real enemies for me to fight.

I ended up helping Stark as he fixed the engine, and kept the Helicarrier from crashing into the ocean, and saving the lives of everyone on board including myself.

Now the fight was over, and we lost our prisoner, a good man. Ink was supposed to be the next thing to decorate those cards, not blood.

We gained a prisoner too apparently. Agent Barton was the one who was responsible for the explosion, and was left behind when Agent Romanoff subdued him before he could reach Loki.

I was angry, and frustrated, and a little sad when I finally tracked Agent Romanoff down. In the infirmary.

That cooled my temper a bit. Apparently before she fought and subdued agent Barton, her partner, she was backhanded across a room by the Hulk, and it if wasn't for the intervention of Thor, she probably would have been killed.

As much as I want answers I'm not going to demand them in place of a woman's medical treatment. She left that note, that she wants to talk to me too. I just need to be a little patient, there are other conversations I can have while I wait, like with Tony. I saw that look when he walked off, and I've worn that look.

FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012

0737 HOURS

S.H.I.E.L.D HELICARRIER

INTERNATIONAL WATERS OFF EAST COAST, USA

NATASHA

'You're lucky' is what the nurses said when they wrapped my purple ribs and gave me a local anesthetic for the pain. 'You should be dead.' Is what they were probably thinking.

I took a blow to the side from the Hulk and hit metal with the other. Even being trained on how to take a hit and fall, there's only so much force that those skills can absorb. Then I immediately went out, fought and beat one of the deadliest men in S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Agent Romanoff." My earpiece buzzes, and I already know what Fury's going to say next. "Barton's up." One who I intend to go talk to right now.

FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012

0754 HOURS

S.H.I.E.L.D HELICARRIER

INTERNATIONAL WATERS OFF EAST COAST, USA

CLINT

"But you don't." Nat came in and sat with me, told me I was gonna be alright, told me it would take time, told me she fixed me the 'American way', by hitting me harder, then basically said 'Now let's go kill the bastard'. I was grateful for all of it, and confused by the last. "You're a spy, not a soldier."

"Now you want to wade into a war." I knew Natasha would be willing to take Loki down and get Nora back, but I figured she'd be working the intelligence half of the mission. She never fought Loki, or an Asgardian period, but we'd seen the footage and we both understood we were outclassed. I knew it when I pulled a gun on him, even before he proved it. "Why?"

But now the way she is talking, 'We gotta stop him. I don't know. Whoever's left.' She sounds like she is standing on the edge of desperation. "What did Loki do to you?"

When I told him all her secrets, I knew the bastard would use 'em, and I can see some of that pain in her, behind what anyone else would see as calm. I know it's part of that, part Nora, and maybe part me that's driving her here, but I need to know what motivated her here before it might cause trouble out there.

The ledger. Its Nat's term for the things 'they' made her do. Its her word for the things that keep her up at night, the things she hates doing. It's something she's barely added to since she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. That she mentioned it at all means she added something today, and that's all I need to know.

FRIDAY, MAY 4TH 2012

0803 HOURS

VELES TAXI GARAGE

HELL'S KITCHEN NEW YORK

DUNCAN AKA ALEXANDER

S.H.I.E.L.D didn't know what they were looking for, but I knew a little and that gave me an advantage.

Loki said he would make it invisible to the satellites, but you can't have a car like that on the road, or there would an accident every five seconds. So I hacked a weather satellite feed and started comparing it to traffic cams, looking for a truck I couldn't see the top of. It took me a while, but I found it.

They made a detour to a truck stop just before the NJ turnpike in Secaucus, and thing got a little more tricky there with the footage available. I know they moved something to a new truck though, and since it it only took them five minutes, I know it wasn't the machine. They were splitting the cargo, and she was going somewhere else, probably somewhere far away from wherever the fighting might happen.

So I stopped tracking the invisible truck. I let one of the most dangerous things on the planet drive off so I could follow a woman instead. Every instinct is an agent, doesn't matter what side, was screaming at me for that, but I'm just going to have to hope my faith in S.H.I.E.L.D isn't misplaced and leave that up to them. The tesseracts not my mission.

I found them too. HYDRA operates undocumented, but as part of a paramilitary organization they aren't without their patterns, and I noticed one of them. They're hunting us. That's not good news, but it still makes me smile because their route matched the trucks, and that means I'm right.

That also means I have to get the Russians to hurry because the truck just got on New Jersey 495 and Nora is less than a half hour from our door.