So here's an update for this. Enjoy and uh... it will get significantly darker in later chapters until we get past the Avengers movie.
"Hey, is she okay?"
"I don't know."
"She hit the floor pretty hard."
"Don't look at me! If she'd rolled properly, she would've ended up on the mat! Not my fault she's got one of the lowest combat scores!"
"Shouldn't someone take her to the infirmary?"
"Oh, hey! I think she's waking up!"
W-What… I cringed as my head throbbed, reaching a hand up and blinking open my eyes to see blurred figures gathered around me and hovering over me in concern. I suddenly remembered the alien invasion, getting hurt, and revealing what I knew while forcing the portal closed and I sat up quickly. My hands grabbed at my clothes, jerking my shirt away from my body but seeing no injury. My mind stalled, fumbling to grab some sense of what happened. But I was… Then, a soft 'ping' drew my eyes to something new.
It was a semi-transparent box floating in the air in front of me with words displayed on it.
Aiden Sterling died
from blood loss after being
stabbed by an invading Chitauri.
Dead End
"W-What…?"
"Why are you all standing around? Get back to your training! Jenson!" Clint's voice rang out clearly, as I brought a hand up and watched it pass through the box.
"Yes, sir!" A figure near me said, snapping to attention as I moved my hand to my head and the box changed.
First reset accomplished.
You have unlocked a new game mode.
New missions will now be available.
Accepting will bring rewards.
Declining will have consequences.
The choice is yours to accept.
"Missions?" I breathed as Clint approached.
"Sterling, can you stand?"
I glanced at him now that the box was gone, seeing the number 3 above his head. It's lower… I'd gotten it to 6 before he was taken by Loki, but this scene is… "I… I think I might need to go rest, sir. I-I'm a bit… scrambled."
"You sure you're okay? You look a bit pale. I can take you to the infirmary if you want."
"No, I just… I-I just need a bit of rest," I countered, getting up with only a minor stumble and hastily brushing past him.
As soon as I was out of the training area, I made a mad dash for my room. Once there, I closed the door behind me, gasping for air and clenching my fists.
"W-What the fuck is going on?" I choked out. "T-The numbers were fine. Weird but I-I ignored them for the most part. They were just relationship stats but now there's a-a whole fucking system? This isn't a game! Why the hell am I getting mission windows!"
I slowly sank to the ground, covering my head with my hands and trying to calm down and think.
"I was… I was on the roof of Stark Tower. Yeah. Yeah, I died up there after closing the portal but now I'm… I'm back where I started?"
I got up and rushed to my bedside table where there was an alarm clock with the date. I dropped onto my bed, holding it for a moment, before placing it back down. I am… I'm months back in time. Back to when I first woke up as Aiden Sterling.
"How?"
There was another ping and my gaze was brought to another floating box.
Upon death, Aiden Sterling
will be returned to a previous save point.
"Previous save point?" I grit my teeth. "What save point? Even if this was a fucking game, I haven't seen a single save point or even been given the option to save! I just died and got sent back to the beginning!"
Ping!
Save points were not accessible
until after the first reset.
Ping!
New save points will be created upon
starting a mission.
I wasn't really reading the explanation the system was giving me as a realization came to mind. Wait… If I was reset back to where I started, then…
"Coulson… C-Can I save Coulson?" I asked the floating boxes
Ping!
New missions will be offered
under specific circumstances.
But it's not saying no. There's still a chance. An almost manic grin stretched over my face as a broken chuckle escaped me
"I-I can save him. I can save Coulson."
My smile fell quickly though. No. Not like this. I couldn't save him before but… I glanced down at my hands, clenching them into fists. I've reset to the start. If I can train harder, become a better agent, put myself in a more hopeful situation then maybe…
"No. I have to. I have to save him," I muttered, determined. "That's why my life was reset. It has to be. He has to survive and I'll make sure of it."
Rain poured heavily down outside Shield headquarters and Coulson sighed lightly as he walked through the hall and flipped through some files on his tablet. More and more work was coming in but the new agents in training were scheduled to graduate the general courses soon. He would have more hands to help soon enough but until then, he needed to handle what he could with those he had. Then, he would need to pick who he was interested in for his team.
I have enough muscle heads. Having physically skilled agents is fine and all, but you still need the right amount of intelligence too. We haven't found decent agents like that since Hills, Barton, and Romanoff. Newbies are just too focused on one talent. We need someone more well-rounded. More—He stopped, blinking at the speck he spotted outside the window.
He wiped a bit of fog off the glass to ensure he wasn't seeing things as Clint walked down the hall with a yawn. He spotted Coulson staring with furrowed brows and came up beside him curiously.
"Something catch your eye, Phil?"
"Training for the day was finished, wasn't it?" Coulson asked, tapping the window with a finger as Clint hummed. "Then, who's that?"
He too, leaned toward the window before opening it up and poking his head out for a better look. He recognized the figure who was running in the rain and muck and shouted down to them.
"Hey, Sterling! You're going to catch a cold like that! Use a damn training hall!"
Sterling nearly slipped at his shout, catching herself and sliding to a stop before wiping water and soaking wet hair out of her face. When she spotted him, she called out an apology and turned toward the doors to come back inside. Clint rolled his eyes and shut the window.
"That's Trainee Aiden Sterling. She's a bit off, honestly. Started with average scores for the initial entrance exam then…" He shrugged, palms up. "Dropped to the very bottom as others surpassed her. Was on the way to being more of a lackey or basic paper-pusher up until about a month ago."
"What happened a month ago?" Coulson asked, curious.
"Other trainees think it's unrelated but she was thrown off the mats. Got knocked about real good and refused treatment. Took the day off and then showed up suddenly determined. Still got her ass kicked in practicals but went from quick surrenders to stubbornly refusing to back down."
Coulson hummed, pulling up her file and checking other reports. "Aiden Sterling. 30 years old. No living relatives. Came from California after 4 years in the military. Basic combat skills needed retraining and less-general knowledge was limited. Minor tech skills."
"That's what she started out as," Clint agreed. "I'm not usually involved in their training and just drop by but you know how it is. Between them and their teachers, rumors spread. Hers were just the loudest."
Coulson kept reading, getting to more recent files and growing more and more surprised. "Went from dead last in practicals to the top five trainees? Gun training shows she's top three in accuracy and… she graduated the tech course early."
Clint looked over at that. "Hold on. That can't be right. How do you graduate a course early?"
"Fury approved it," Coulson said, showing him the file. "One week into the course after her incident, she bypassed any and all security we had, requesting to either be given a more skilled teacher or be exempt from the course. She sent the request straight to Fury, who not only approved it but now has her in contact with the head of the cyber security division to improve Shield's cyber network." He glanced at Clint who looked equally impressed. "She's not just some average trainee."
Clint let out a whistle. "No shit. I didn't hear about the tech stuff."
"They probably kept it quiet because of the security breach. Says she's taking extra courses too. Off the books."
"With who?"
"The combat specialist who trains the special ops team."
"You're joking. He wouldn't take anyone."
Coulson showed him the tablet where a video played of Sterling and said agent sparing. "He must see something in her then. Video is from yesterday evening. She's put in requests to the weapons specialist as well as a few other senior agents. I don't know what happened after that incident you mentioned, but something definitely has her working hard now."
Clint recognized the tone and look in his eyes instantly. "You're not thinking of… You're not bringing her in, are you?"
Coulson shrugged innocently, tucking the tablet under his arm and starting to head off. "She's got promise but you never know. Just don't be surprised if you and Romanoff start seeing her around more often."
"Great."
Ping!
Mission: Graduate top three in all subjects
Mission Accomplished!
Rewards:
+3 Fame
3 Skill Points
$3,000
Save point created.
I glanced idly at the system display as I stood among the other students while the short graduation ceremony was being finished. Things had certainly changed from my first go-through in this universe. Where I used to only have the floating numbers as a guide, I now had skills, fame, save points, missions, and money. Not that Shield didn't pay me, but now I had a separate system account where I could use the money earned to purchase items to place in my inventory. I couldn't access said inventory all the time though, given no one could see it and it would be strange to just pull items out of thin air, but I'd worked things out and purchased a backpack that would open up into my inventory. The rest was a bit different and took some getting used to.
Fame wasn't important to me at all. All it told me was what I already knew, that people were spreading rumors about me. Though, fame in video games could also open up rewards, right? Enough fame meant the ability to manage politics within the group or automatic relationship boosts or something. My brows furrowed lightly as I shifted my weight a bit, ignoring the rambling speech being given to the graduating class. Is it weird that I feel like I should've played more video games? I brushed the thought aside as I opened up the next system display showing my personal skills.
Unlike what I expected, there was no HP, MP, or XP that I could work with. What I was given were skill points that I could then use to upgrade a sort of system tree. The base skills were generic: hand-to-hand combat, physical capabilities, weapon skills, and intelligence. Each one allowed me to put in skill points that would open up more specific skills. Hand-to-hand opened up into self-defense, boxing, wrestling, and MMA; physical capabilities had strength, stamina, healing, and calming; weapon skills branched out to long-range and short-range weapons which expanded into various gun types, long weapons (spears, swords, etc), and short (daggers, batons, etc); and intelligence split into technology, knowledge, and focus.
The only thing is, I don't know how much of this stuff transfers over if I reset, I mused, moving my new skill points to where I wanted them. I had managed to gather quite a few of them since the system wanted to reward me for each individual class. I got one skill point for getting into the top five, two for the top three, and three for being the top student or—in the case of the tech course—graduating early. It was a shame though, that graduating with said scores only got me three skill points but I wasn't about to complain. It was the save point that I appreciated.
I had done my absolute best in my courses and knew that there wouldn't be much further improvement if I reset back to the beginning. Improvement would only come from more advanced training with agents like the weapons trainer and using my skill points as best I could.
IntelligenceFocus +1
Physical capabilitiesStamina +1
Physical capabilitiesCalming +1
That should be fine for now. No point in leveling up the hand-to-hand or weapons skills when I'm not sure what exactly I'll be doing yet. Healing is too suspicious, so I've left it alone for now and my strength is alright. Ramp that up too much and it will be suspicious. I rolled my neck as the graduation ceremony was wrapped up and new assignments were being handed out to separate us into our designated teams. My technology skills are already maxed out so obviously some skills remain after I reset. Knowledge is fine and all but again, suspicious if I suddenly become a genius. Needs to be added to slowly. Calming, focus, and stamina are my best bets until I know what team I'll be put on and what missions. I took the paper offered to me and felt my heart skip a beat.
Coulson… I'm on Coulson's team. How did I…? I tightened my grip on the paper briefly but knew I couldn't keep him waiting. So I stepped out and followed the halls to where Coulson's office was, where he wanted to meet. I stood outside the door, heart racing and wondering if I could even handle seeing him again; alive and well.
Ping!
Activate calming skill?
Yes/No
I begrudgingly accepted and felt my heart rate calm, relaxing my tense shoulders as I opened the door. I still felt the familiar pain of remembering his death when I spotted him but it didn't overwhelm me like it might have without the calming skill. T-The last thing I want is to be acting so strangely when, for him, we've only just met… still, doesn't mean I can use it every time and…
Calming skill activated.
One minute remaining.
…there's a time limit. I have to hold it in myself… God, I'm so glad he's alive. I swallowed thickly as he set down his paperwork on his desk and picked up one file to put directly in front of him.
"Agent Sterling, correct?" He hummed as I nodded, standing straight with my hands clasped behind my back.
"Yes, sir."
He flipped open the file and read bits and pieces of it. "Says here that you graduated out of your tech course early, appealed to the Director, and have already secured a position among Shield's cyber security network. That's impressive." He closed the file and clasped his hands under his chin, eyeing me. "There are also rumors saying you went from dead last in our recruit training to one of the top graduates."
I nodded, already knowing the rumors had spread among the other trainees. "Yes, sir."
"See, usually when something happens like that, there's a motivator. Death in the family, money issues, drug use."
I grit my teeth to hold back any retort to his accusation, which he still managed to notice; cracking a small smile.
"Yet, you have no remaining family, your finances are stable, and your bi-weekly drug tests come up clean. Not that you can't work your way around that, but I digress. So, tell me, where did your sudden motivation come from? I highly doubt it was simply because of getting knocked off the mats."
To save you, my mind supplied as my calming skill wore off and left me with an aching pain in my heart at remembering Loki's scepter piercing through his chest. I had to come up with another response though. I couldn't let him find out.
"I… got frustrated," I admitted, knowing that was partially true as well. "After getting knocked to the mats, I was frustrated about being in the bottom tier of trainees and getting thrown around in the physicals."
"Then, why not improve just in the physical combat courses? If that's all you wanted to accomplish, why work hard enough to test out of your tech course? Why excel in your weaponry courses?"
"It felt… half-hearted. Excelling in the practicals alone wouldn't change how I felt. Sorry, it's a bit hard to explain."
He didn't seem to mind and thankfully continued on. "You requested extra courses with specialized agents as well. How did those go?"
I thought back to the training I did and the responses I got from the agents involved. "I'm assuming well. They rarely gave actual praise but never stopped teaching me and I saw improvements."
"One last thing," he said, smiling innocently at me. "How well can you make a cup of coffee?"
"Shouldn't she have broken by now?" Clint questioned Coulson as the two watched Sterling get a tray set up with various cups of coffee. "It would drive me nuts to spend my first week on a team being the coffee grunt."
"It was just a test," Coulson admitted. "Though I didn't expect her to just take it without complaint. She makes a mean cup of coffee."
Clint gave him a look. "Agents are saying she's been using the kitchens too. Making pastries and stuff."
Coulson raised a brow. "I thought she was buying pre-packaged pastries. She actually makes them?"
"From scratch."
They went quiet as she came over and handed them their coffee, turning to go do the paperwork Coulson usually assigned only for him to stop her. While she did a great job as his office secretary, that wasn't why he brought her onto the team.
"Sterling, a word."
She paused, lightly setting down the papers she'd just picked up before heading over.
"From now on, I want you to work with Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff to further improve your skills. After a week, I'll start giving you your first missions that you will do with a team. After that, we'll see about solo ops. Is that understood?"
She nodded though didn't appear any more pleased about it than her coffee job. "Yes, sir. When shall I start?"
"Right now," Clint said. "Thirty laps around the building then meet me in the training center on the third floor."
She nodded and left, and they both watched her go before Clint turned to Coulson.
"You sure it wasn't the head injury? She has to be broken somehow. I've seen fully-trained agents complain about orders but she just… takes them."
"I'll look further into her psych evals but I'm not sure what to tell you. From what I've seen, she seems desperate to improve. Not sure why and nothing in her file explains it. All we can do is continue to test her until she gives it up or—at the very least—shows that it won't affect her decision-making."
Clint got up with a nod, finishing his coffee. "I'll tell Natasha. She can handle that best I think."
Coulson nodded, sipping his coffee and resisting a sigh of pleasure. "Don't break her too much. I still need her to make coffee."
Clint rolled his eyes and headed out, eager to see what he could do with the newest agent.
Things were not easy after I'd been mostly upgraded from being the coffee grunt. That had been a familiar job and I didn't mind the mundanity of it, but I was also thrilled to be getting some actual training in. Or, well, not thrilled exactly. I knew I needed to better my skills if I was going to prevent Coulson from dying later on and in order to do that, I needed to train with more advanced agents. Didn't mean I enjoyed getting my ass kicked on a daily basis though.
I grunted as I was again thrown down onto the mats, covered in sweat and breathing heavily as Natasha Romanoff stood across from me looking far more composed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before getting back up and settling back into my defensive stance; my wrapped fists up in front of my face.
"Again," I requested and she shrugged before our spar continued.
We'd been going at it for hours and for the life of me, I couldn't get a proper hit on her. It was frustrating but also humbling and, as always, it was something I struggled to get over after the day was done and I was allowed to rest back in my room. Training with Clint was slightly better but not by much. He focused more on weapons, accuracy, and building up my endurance and strength, whereas Natasha just sparred with me to give me the practical application of hand-to-hand combat or helped me with my flexibility. Even with skill points slowly being added to what I needed to improve on, it hardly made a difference when I sparred with her.
Again, my back slammed into the mats and I grit my teeth in frustration before a towel was tossed onto my face. I pulled it off with a frown at Natasha but she ignored me and just walked off to sit on a nearby bench and drink some water. We were apparently taking a break and I begrudgingly huffed and sat up, wiping the sweat off my face.
"You're going to burn yourself out, Sterling."
I stopped, lowering the towel and glancing over at Natasha uneasily.
"Know your limits. Trying to get things done too quickly is just going to put you further behind." She shot me a look as she stood. "Don't know what your rush is but it can and will cause troubles out in the field if you let your goals overshadow everything else. Understand?"
I nodded and she waved for me to get up for another round. I stood and settled into position again, before starting first this time. She blocked my hit and retaliated as usual but I didn't expect her to start talking this time.
"You need to focus on the here and now," she urged, making me wince when her decision to talk caused me to hesitate on a kick just enough for her to easily sweep my other leg out from under me.
I rolled with my fall to get up quickly, already anticipating her attack and blocking it before offering my own.
"Your first mission is tomorrow with a number of other new recruits. If you're as distracted there as you are here, I don't expect you to get far."
"I'm not—" My argument was cut off as she swung a hard kick at my side.
I blocked it with my elbow but she swung her leg up over my arm, wrapped it around my neck as she grabbed my leg, and threw me to the floor with a painful pin that I tapped out of. She released me only to stomp on my gut, making me cough with a glare as she looked down at me and leaned forward onto her leg in my stomach.
"Get out of your head, Sterling," she said coldly, stepping off me and turning away. "Before you get someone killed."
She left the room as I pushed myself upright, wincing at the ripple of pain in my stomach and huffing. -4. How the hell am I supposed to take that? You're happy to beat me to the ground every day but are mad at me because I'm distracted trying to get strong enough to save Coulson? Not that you know that's what I'm doing but still. I closed my eyes with a sigh before getting up and gathering my things, picking up the mission file she'd left on my things to give a quick look through. Generic Hydra base infiltration. Small, middle of nowhere, scouts sent ahead think it's abandoned so it's a small team of newer recruits with a few advanced agents taking the lead. I lightly swiped the "yes" on the system window that popped up asking about accepting the mission, knowing I was going to anyway, but I paused and glanced at the door Natasha had left through.
She's right though… I need to focus.
"How did it go?" Coulson asked from behind his desk, glancing up at Natasha standing before him.
"A mess, as expected," she replied.
"Yes, well, it's not often the scouts get it wrong. Casualties?"
"Two and one injured. All three new recruits and agents." She handed him a tablet with more information. "The scouts didn't have it wrong. The warehouse was abandoned but they came back for something they missed. It was an oversight we hadn't expected."
"But one we should have. We'll have to leave more things to the more qualified agents next time. Hydra bases will be off-limits to newer agents," he sighed, pushing the tablet away and reaching for his coffee instead. "And Agent Sterling? How'd she do?"
"Not bad, despite her… shortcomings."
He raised a brow, putting the cup down. "Such as?"
"What you suspected," Natasha mused. "She's determined to get stronger as quickly as possible. I'm concerned that at some point, her motivations will take lead over a mission."
"Did it?" He asked, curiously. "That's why we sent her out early and with a different team. Usually, she would have gone on a mission with you and Agent Barton."
Natasha sighed lightly. "She froze for only a moment and because of her quick thinking, there were fewer casualties than there could have been. Comms had gone down limiting communication between the three groups sent in and the head agent of her group had been hit first. She took lead when he went down, directed another to give the appropriate first aid treatment, and helped keep the more startled agents calm."
Coulson smiled. "So, she was exceptional."
"This time," Natasha corrected. "I've seen what happens when people are focused on other things on missions. Maybe it didn't happen this time, but at some point, she will have to choose which mission to follow; the one she was ordered or the one she's preoccupied with."
"I'm surprised you haven't learned what it is yet."
Natasha gave him a bland look. "She keeps things close."
"Sounds like someone else I know," he teased as she rolled her eyes.
"Will that be all, sir?"
He hummed, sliding a file across the table that he pulled from a drawer. "Give this to her."
Natasha took it with a frown, asking for brief permission before looking it over and turning back to him in surprise. "A solo op? You're joking."
He shrugged. "The way I see it, we have two options." He held up a finger. "Continue to train her and hope that she spills what she's preoccupied with before it causes a problem or keep up the pressure, push her to her limits, and have her prove one way or the other if it will be a problem. A longer mission, on her own, forces her to try and keep up appearances when no one's watching. She'll either do it and have no issues or she will crack and show us what it is the hard way."
"Director Fury approved this?" Natasha asked hesitantly, earning a nod.
"She's got him curious too, it seems, and he's not about to let a flight risk just stick around on one of his best teams. Much less when she's got such high clearance thanks to her tech skills."
Natasha nodded and tucked the file under her arm. "I'll give it to her."
Coulson nodded, starting to go back to his own paperwork before stopping her at the door. "She'll probably be in the kitchens. Do bring me a piece of whatever she's baking."
"Who sent you?" Klaue demanded as I kept my lips tightly shut. "I liked you too. You were a good worker. Probably why they sent you instead of some basic grunt. So? Who was it? Hydra? Shield? Wakanda? As you can imagine, I've got a lot of people who'd like to see me dead or my work stolen. Be nice to know who to send your head to."
This was not how things were supposed to go, obviously. Of course, I hadn't expected a second mission so soon after the first, much less a solo op. The job had sounded simple but with a hint of danger which was the usual at Shield but I couldn't remember for the life of me if I ever had to fill out paperwork for a newly recruited agent getting a solo op undercover as their second mission. This meant, there hadn't been any. Or, well, none that were surprising enough to get my attention when I filed them into the system. This meant the whole thing was a test.
Because that's all they've been doing since I was assigned to Coulson's team, being tested, I mentally complained, having seen it from the start. Training with Clint who tried to play good cop while Natasha played bad cop and they all tried to get me to explain why I was so desperate to gain more skills. I knew Coulson was in on it too with these missions and his snooping at my psych evals. That, and I knew him. He could be a hard ass when he wanted to and he always enjoyed pushing me to my limits, especially when I wanted to do anything but. So, who would've thought he'd be even worse when I just did what I was told? It's like he wants me to act out.
I coughed as a hard fist slammed into my stomach; one of many to add to my list of growing injuries as Klaue tried to get me to break.
Ping!
Activate accelerated healing?
Yes/No
No. Not yet. I'll have more issues if Klaue sees that. I've already dealt with it once. I spat a glob of blood on the floor from a cut in my cheek; taking a deep breath and letting it out despite the pain in my ribs. This would be the fourth time I was redoing this mission and I wasn't happy about it.
I wouldn't have gotten caught initially if some bumbling fool hadn't caused trouble with a shipment of Vibranium. Soft heart that I was, I was willing to take the fall for the screw-up—He was just a kid—without realizing that they would then inspect every little thing I'd done before. That led to security footage and internal records being checked, and my room being searched. There wasn't much to find but the hair dye to change my hair to black, an extra passport, a small chunk of Vibranium, and my tablet riddled with added security were enough for Klaue to be suspicious. I apparently wasn't the first person to slip into his ranks too, given how quickly I was brought before him and tied up for interrogation.
The only issue was, Klaue didn't like people getting into his business. He'd have killed me on the spot the second I gave up what he wanted to know. I tried that the second time just to see and yeah, a single bullet to the forehead the second I said Shield. The first time I died was poor luck. My save point was apparently right after I got captured and I only found that out when he beat me to death for talking back and woke back up tied to the chair. Then, the third time I tried bargaining which half worked until he got what he wanted or grew bored. So, I was back to staying quiet. This strategy gave me the most time to come up with an escape plan and when he was called away by others, I got to work.
I shifted my hands—which were tied behind my back—to rest the rope against the corner of the chair and started sawing away. It was a cheap metal chair that was already rusted by the ocean air. Klaue was smart to do all his business on a big freight liner that could leave African waters and drift off somewhere out of their jurisdiction should business go south, but it also meant an easier way for me to escape. He hadn't gone far though. I could hear him talking to someone outside the nearest door. I needed a plan to get away and quickly. I'd already been out of contact with Shield for too long and they would either send out a search for me or a kill order. Given I was a newer agent and one under suspicion, I was betting on the latter.
Come on, come on. I really don't want to do this over again. I grinned when the rope finally snapped and rushed for the door, ducking just to the side as Klaue opened it and sighed, running a hand through his hair with an annoyed look on his face. He didn't have time to react before I'd stolen the large hunting knife from his waist and held it against his throat. He chuckled though, obviously pleased by the turn of events.
"Oh! Oh, you got me," he said with a laugh, holding up his hands as I led him past his guards, who were uncertain of what to do with their boss being held at knifepoint.
I didn't say anything though, just carefully leading him out onto the deck of the ship, eyes racking the people nearby as they watched and looked for an opening.
"You're a bit dull, you know," Klaue grumbled. "You can talk, can't you?"
"Don't need to," I muttered, mind racing and trying to think.
Ping!
New Mission: Escape!
Escape the ship and return to Shield
Rewards:
3 Fame
3 Skill Points
$1,000
Accept? Yes/No
Yeah, whoop-de-freakin-do. What else am I supposed to do? Stay here and die again? I mentally scoffed, accepting the mission and trying to figure out how to get off the ship. I hadn't thought that far ahead and that was a mistake, but I couldn't go back now. Or, not yet, anyway. Resets only happen when I die. Wish I could just reset to a save point whenever. My gaze caught on a nearby boat that was hung up and waiting for deployment for emergencies. It was my only option so I started backing us up toward the controls to drop it. When I reached back to hit the controls though, Klaue used that to his advantage and dropped to the side, kicking me hard in the gut.
I rolled with the kick and dove behind the boat before anyone could take a shot at me, teeth bared in a snarl of frustration for giving him the opening. Natasha will be furious when I get back. Klaue huffed, bringing up his hand to finger the small bleeding cut on his neck and turning to the guards nearby.
"Well? Shoot the bitch already!"
Gunshots went off, punching holes in the boat I could now no longer use, and being armed with just a blade while they were firing automatics was not the best situation. Should have stolen a gun. Might still be able to… I dove from the safety of the boat to run through the cargo containers on the deck of the ship, bringing the guards closer and giving me more to work with. The first guy was easy and stupid. He was quickly disarmed and stabbed, giving me his weapon that I then used to kill the guard who tried to come up behind me. A third tried to fire at me from on top of the containers and I had to rush off to another area; ducking behind a container and breathing hard with a grimace of pain.
I wasn't in the best shape for this after Klaue's initial interrogation, already beaten and bloody, possibly sporting bruised ribs and definitely having two broken fingers. But what now? I don't have many options. It's either die and try again or—I cursed as someone dropped down from above, grimacing as Klaue smirked with a blade millimeters from my face and only being held back by the gun I'd taken.
"Gotta say, I really wanna know who you're with now," he purred as I struggled against his weight bearing down on me; the knife inching closer and closer. "Not every day I see my men get pummeled by some scrawny little girl."
"You shouldn't insult yourself like that," I bit out with a hint of a smirk. "This scrawny girl already caught you off guard once."
"Spunky. I like that. Still, I'd rather toy with you a bit if I could. Keep it up and I'll have to shoot you and that wouldn't be much fun." He leaned forward with a smirk as the knife's edge started to slice into my cheek, dangerously close to my right eye. "I want to flay the skin right off your stupid face and see how long it takes to make you scream my name."
I twisted the gun, swinging the knife away from my face and taking a sucker punch toward his throat. I missed as he grabbed my wrist and twisted it painfully, but I dropped the gun and drew the knife I had; swinging it toward his side. It clashed with his and I twisted my wrist free, ducking away to try and grab the gun only for him to kick it further across the deck. I jumped and rolled to avoid his follow-up swipe with his knife, swinging mine up and forcing him to lean back to avoid it cutting his face. I took a chance then and turned my back to him, running for the gun once more that was near the edge of the ship. I nearly had it and twisted to block the knife he'd thrown, only to see the gun he pulled out in the process. I spat a curse, knowing I couldn't dodge in my current position, and brought up the knife in a weak attempt to block it.
Pain rippled through my shoulder as the knife shattered and I felt my leg slip, sending me right over the edge of the ship and into the cold water below.
Ping!
Activate accelerated healing?
Yes/No
Yes! God, yes! I pushed myself around the ship that was thankfully anchored and unmoving; staying low enough that Klaue wouldn't spot me. The accelerated healing wasn't a skill I would have initially used and hadn't put any skill points into it until that first mission. It had gone bad enough that I chose to slowly start adding points to it but it wasn't quite what it seemed. I'd half expected wounds to magically heal the second the skill was used. Instead, it helped me deal with the pain that came with them and only made injuries heal slightly faster than usual. A month-long healing process instead took three weeks. It wasn't anything too obvious, which I was grateful for.
Though I could really do with an instant one, I thought as I broke the surface and sucked in a lungful of air at the bow of the ship. I was still feeling the pain but coupled with the calming skill, it wasn't as debilitating as it could have been. It won't last though. Both will only help for a minute or two at most. My gaze drifted to the port and I grimaced, hoping I would be able to make it as I carefully listened to see if Klaue was still looking for me. By the time I was certain he had stopped, the pain was already settling in.
The salty ocean water made every injury more apparent and when I began swimming back to shore, it took everything in me to keep going. When I finally managed to haul myself up onto the beach a little ways away from the docks to avoid being spotted, night had fallen and I was close to passing out from pain. Blood dripped onto the sand from the gunshot wound to my shoulder and I heaved myself up onto my feet wearily. Now… to get back… without dying.
"Anything?"
Natasha shook her head and Coulson frowned, fingers clasped in front of his mouth as he stared at his desk. No head agent wanted to make this call, especially not when the agent had seemed so promising. Still, he had no choice. She was a flight risk, sure, but there was also the chance that something went wrong on the mission. So, he reached for the phone to get internal affairs on the line when suddenly a young agent knocked and hastily opened the door.
"S-Sir! Sir, there's an agent making an emergency call through a nonacceptable line. They said they're looking for you."
"Name?" Coulson asked, hopeful.
"Agent Sterling."
"Patch her through."
The agent nodded and rushed off as Clint eyed him with a hint of hesitation.
"You're sure? She knows the protocol. Why would she use a phone line that's not accepted?"
"She's been out of contact for a week. We don't know what happened and, while it's unorthodox, we don't know what options she has available," Natasha informed him.
"Or she defected and is just playing us."
"Then, we'll deal with her when it comes to that," Coulson said, picking up the phone when it rang. "Agent Sterling, I do believe you've exceeded your deadline."
"F-Funny story about that… Can I get a pickup? M-Medic too, if you can." She let out a dazed laugh. "Been shot a-and interrogated. K-Klaue needs manners."
Coulson nodded, pushing over a note to get those prepared toward Natasha as she took it and hurried out. "Already on the way. Hang in there, Sterling."
"W-Will do, sir."
