(Pat Doyle)
We were waiting just above the place to scout a tiny bit before heading in. The jet in the perfect position at the moment to not get smashed by other flying objects while we continued to think a plan up.
For some reason?
"I can't see through much," I revealed sheepishly. "Most of it is either lead-lined or some other sort of anti-radiation shielding, not much I can do about that."
"It's been shielded a bit too well," Stark piped in from his position in the air, he had left the comfort of the Quinjet to more easily scan the building with his tools, something I didn't even need to stand for. I could hear his AI, Javis, speak about the materials "The only signal I can get from the place is from the Tesseract's gamma readings."
"We're going to need to enter carefully," Cap supplied.
There was something odd about this conversation as if we'd discussed this once too many times. It was probably us trying to be extra careful, given the mild mind-fu that we were under, it wouldn't be good if we were too eager and went and got ourselves killed.
"I'm going in," At a glance from Black Widow, who didn't need to pilot now that the jet was set to hover in the air, I shrugged. "I can get in and through anything down there before you say tits on an elephant."
"I'm not going to ask about one," Cap butted in before Romanoff could sound anything off. "But we're going to go in together. More eyes will mean fewer risks, and you don't have the experience in dealing with traps."
I didn't have much to say in regards to that but it turns out that Thor did.
"Aye," he agreed, brushing back some strands of his golden locks from his face. "And only I have the experience needed to point out any traps that were created by my brother's power."
"So Harry Potter traps," Stark finally piped in. "Good to know, I'll keep an eye out for any boggarts or moving staircases."
I chortled.
"Is Harry Potter the only fantasy story that you've read?"
"Let's stop with the references and get to saving the world."
With the stern words from the Captain, Thor and I followed Stark's suit and leaped out of the Quinjet, slowly hovering to the ground. I walked forward first, just a few steps ahead of the Thunderer, snapping the handle, and the lock, of the steel door frame. Stark took the lead after that, with Thor standing in front of me as we went in. I could hear Cap drop from the jet with a thud, and follow in behind me. Only Black Widow was staying behind.
The building was mostly concrete walls filled with many things that I couldn't see through. The only things that I could make out were the steel beams that were holding things up. The building otherwise appeared completely empty, Which would be odd, given it was a nuclear site and needed security worthy of that fact.
I made sure to glare upon the cameras in each room, knowing that Loki's minions were watching us as we went further into the building. It was then that I caught a red line in the air in front of us, its presence clear to me but apparently not to Thor, as he continued to walk towards it. Acting quickly, I reached out and grabbed his cape.
"Wait," His glare would've been the stuff of legend… if I hadn't met Louise. "Laser trap, don't want to trip whatever trick is set for us. Stark, do you got something for this?"
The armored hero stepped forward, a panel on his right arm opening up and a loud hissing noise erupted from it. The laser blinked, then I heard a low crack and the beam died out.
"Cracked the laser's emitter with the shattered glass trick," Stark swaggered forward, for the first time, I could tell that there was some issue with walking in the thing. Not that he was having trouble, just that you had to step in exact ways. "It won't cause the trap to go off this way."
With the way that I now perceived things, it was easy to notice that none of the others had reacted to the Stark's little stunt, so I faked blinking and rubbed my ears.
"W-well," I stuttered out. "Next time you bust that thing out, I'd like a warning."
"Sorry," he replied, a genuine apology for what was a lie on my part.
(Bobbi Morse)
She woke up with a startling headache, the kind that felt akin to having part of your head carved in by a shovel. They had covered her eyes, tied her arms behind her back by the wrists, and then bound her to a pole. But with the tips of her fingers, she was able to feel the ground. Hard polished floors, cold and smooth. Not like the floor in the apartment, Bobbi had been taken from, this felt expensive to touch. It had that mix of natural and artificial texture work that only the super-wealthy could afford.
Bobbi was careful not to move much otherwise, not wanting to let her kidnappers know that she was awake. Instead, the Agent concentrated in taking in the crowd around her talking their heads off.
"It is glorious, the truth… isn't it?" A woman spoke up, from her voice alone Bobbi couldn't tell her exact age but estimated that she was between her early thirties to mid-forties.
"Librating is what it is," Replied a man who sounded older than the woman which placed him within his early to late fifties, before elaborating further with a glee only seen in small children. "The knowledge of the truth, it completes a man. I'm not sure what I was thinking before, but whatever it was… it can't match what we were shown."
The information was unimportant, it didn't get Bobbi any closer to finding out where she'd been taken. It didn't reveal any further details about the scheme Loki, given Barton's involvement, or Octavius were cooking up. Obviously, the Trickster had called up the talents of the mad scientist to help with the portal for his army. Someone with morals as loose as Ock would jump at the chance, especially as it's a dream of the woman, even if it meant the world would be conquered by aliens.
"Doc!" Barton's voice was like a beacon to Bobbi, she was able to keenly hone in on his location in the far corner of the room they were in. A rather large room, given the distance she was able to estimate. "Morse is awake."
It was then that she heard the mechanical clicking of the doctor's limbs, the snaps of the claws as it neared her ears.
"I know, I was waiting for her to get bored playing," Doc Ock's voice came out with glee. "But I suppose the opening teaser is coming soon," The claws snapped around Bobbi's face, freeing her from the blindfold. "I do want someone not brainwashed to see the fruits of my studies."
There wasn't much to be said about the room, other than what Bobbi had already deduced. Though the series of large TV screens that were hanging off walls wasn't what she expected. Off to the side, she could spot a few SHIELD Agents, brainwashing tagged on their faces with their bright blue eyes, and a few freelance folks Bobbi recognized from briefings on people that ran missions once or twice with Barton. But sitting by a laptop with the Tesseract hooked up to it and also some other machine was Dr. Selvig. His greying hair and glasses only displayed the blue in his eyes with even more prominence, while the maniac smile sent a chill down Morse's spine.
A loud whine came out of a pair of speakers, a red light accompanying it.
"Doctor, we seem to have a problem with stabilizing the Tesseract," Selvig's statement should've brought some urgency from the other doctor but the woman only gave it half her attention as a pair of tentacles stabbed into a port on a nearby console. The whining stopped and the light turned blue. "Oh… that fixed it."
Octavius searched Bobbi's face, up and down.
"Do you know why I've brought you here?" she asked in a quiet, but somehow threatening voice. "I-"
"I didn't let her kill you," Barton interrupted with a grin as he took a few steps forward into the room. "No point, we're not here to kill but to liberate. When you see the truth for yourself, you'll join us."
"Good," Morse spoke for the first time. "Then you can 'liberate' me now."
Barton actually bent to do so, his face smiling as he did. It was as if he had considered what Morse said as a joining statement. A tentacle wrapped around the man's shoulder and pulled him away.
"Now, now," Octavius's claws snapped into her face, drawing the pair's attention back to her. "There will be time for that soon enough, once we've allowed the army though. Then everyone will be liberated. Now, go along Barton, you have a task to fulfill."
With that and a smile shared between the two, Barton walked away, leaving with a parting sentence;
"I'm looking forward to seeing your work in action Doc."
"Now it's just us-" Doc Ock's new speech was interrupted again, this time by Selvig. "-and the rather odd Dr. Selvig," she leaned into Bobbi's ear. "The brainwashing seems to have had odd effects on Selvig, he almost stripped down to his skivvies, we had to stop him."
"They've tripped the sensors!" Selvig yelled out, ignoring the rather defamatory statement Doc Ock had made about him. "Should I activate the traps now or-?"
"Not yet, I don't want them too close to the reactor," She responded smoothly, Bobbi's heart skipping a beat.
"Reactor?" She took another look around, spotting a window showcasing a clear series of skyscrapers. The screens flashed, changing from blank to display to something more along the lines of an industrial complex's concrete floors, thick reinforced steel doors, and radiation warning signs. The two images clashed against each other. "Where are we?"
"Far away from where the Avengers are," Doc Ock replied while snapping her claws together, detaching the pair of them that were connected to the nearby console. "But I wanted to watch, nothing like live test data."
That was when she spotted the red cape of Thor, the iconic shield of Captain America, the red/gold armor of Iron Man, and the blue man himself pop on the screen.
"Lugh," Bobbi tried, hoping that neither of the doctors noticed that she called the man's mostly unused codename.
"Oh, I really hope that he can't hear you," Octavius muttered. "Would completely need to rethink his limits if he can. Would also wonder how he hadn't found me earlier?" She turned around to smugly stare at Morse with a large smile gracing her face. "But it wouldn't matter if he did, it's already too late."
Bobbi rolled her eyes at the other woman but was careful not to open her mouth just yet. Octavius was the type of person to gloat and loved to have a crowd to do it, to make sure that everyone knew just how smart she was.
"Well… aren't you going to ask?" The Doctor's helm went back on, her voice now distorted. "I'm just dying for you to ask."
"..."
"Fine, I'll just tell you anyway," Her actual right arm pointed at the screen with Doyle on it. "Right now, the 'Avengers' are in the middle of a trap I've set up in the Indian Point Energy Center," she closed her eyes and smiled in a manner that reminded Bobbi of someone tasting a delicious meal. "You'd be amazed how easily my little Ock bots took over that place with none the wiser… except for the dead workers," Octavius shrugged. "But who counts them?"
"You're a monster," Bobbi growled.
And while the agent did believe what she was saying, she also was playing it up for the woman. Keeping the mad woman's attention away from the screens, away from the Avengers. It was obvious that she wanted to watch as the trap went off.
So keeping the doctor's attention on her would give them more time to counter whatever she'd set up.
"And my trap is set on a timer."
"... Fuck."
(Pat Doyle)
"The Tesseract signal is coming from that room," Stark supplied, stopping us from entering at that very second. "You… noticing any traps that Reindeer Games put up?"
"No, but that only makes me even wearier," The Norse God intoned, twirling the handle of his hammer around on the flat of his palm. It was as if the blond could sense some sort of danger that the rest of us couldn't. "My brother has only become even more devious with his time away from Asgard. I can't imagine the horrors that may await behind those doors."
"Let me check something," I waved my arm out, making a show of pressing my ear up against the wall. I concentrated on hearing the goings-on in the room, but I could only hear the sound of mechanical components whirling about in there.
The sound of CPU fans.
"Do we have any idea what's meant to be in that room?" I asked Stark, curiosity drove me to ask unnecessarily, we were about to enter anyway.
"It should be the control room for the three Nuclear units," Stark spoke. "Not the place to use the Tesseract, but they could still be setting up the facility with the extra equipment, left it with Selvig in here while the main forces do so."
"Totally a trap," I couldn't help but point out before turning to Cap. "What do you want to do?"
"Spring the trap," he replied with a small smile.
This time we let Thor go first, hoping that he'd be able to see whatever trap his brother had in here and react. When we entered the room, like a well-coordinated wolf pack, we covered the room with all we could. Stark with his beams ready to fire, me with eyes lighting up red, Thor… held out his hammer ready to throw while Rogers his shield.
But rather than finding anything that could remotely count as a threat to us… we found… something far worse for the eye.
"Jesus Christ on a stick," I couldn't help but mutter at the sight before me. Bodies were piled in the corner, bloody holes the size of a large fist oozing the red liquid till it pooled around them. "What the fuck happened here?"
There was no sign of the Tesseract, other than a device in the room that emitted gamma radiation in the same manner according to Stark. Smart idea, obviously if this wasn't a trap it was just a distraction.
Meaning we couldn't spend too long here.
The other three started to talk, I ignored them as I started to examine the bodies. From the injuries, and a layman's understanding of the science behind identifying weapons from the wounds, I could tell that the damage had been done by a long instrument, something like a polearm but bent.
Mostly, I knew this from the curve of the entry wounds compared to the exit ones. They would need to be curved in order to slide in the manner that they did. But it appeared that the weapon had points that came together while inside the body, given the star-shaped nature of the entry wound but not the exit wound.
"Thor, any idea what weapon could do this?" I asked, dragging him from the conversation.
"None that comes to mind," Thor answered me, his face steeped in an expression of thought. "I can name more than a few creatures that could, but none native to Midgard; nor all that controllable, even by one such as my brother."
Hard to believe given what he's been doing here lately but I didn't want to get bogged down in such an argument with the man yet. Especially now as our minds seemed to have cooled.
Sadly, any deeper examination of the situation was interrupted by a loud swear from Stark.
"Shit, someone's fucked around with the station's safeguards," his armored fingers typed vigorously. "The reactors are going into meltdown, I'm trying to release the water tanks to cool them down but it's not responding."
Suddenly, the computer screen shifted to reveal the familiar frizzy hair and glasses of Doctor Octavius.
"Well, well, it isn't my previous employer, Mr. Stark,'' she grinned at us with the same sort of smile that I'd seen from Freddy Cruger. "Seems that you've been having some computer trouble, do you need to contact tech support… because-" The doctor feigned a look of horror. "-I'm afraid that they've all caught a case of death."
"Octavius," he replied smoothly, taking out a connection from beneath another panel in his armor. It revealed a cable with a USB connector at the end which he slid into a port on the computer. "You're even madder than when we last met. How were SHIELD agents sent your way?"
While he was talking to the 'good' doctor, I burned out the cameras in the room with heat vision. Getting Octavius to shift her attention to me finally.
"Doyle, it's been a while," She glared, while I grinned, knowing that she couldn't see me anymore. Though, I should've thought about how she could hear us. "Still getting in the way of progress I see."
"Well, you know it's a hobby."
"Keep them busy, R2."
I saw the distortion in the air move before she'd given the order, my right hand lunging forward and breaking through the Ock Bot as if it was paper mache. The machine erupted into smoke, the metal torn wide open and its invisibility cloak turning off.
"She's made cloaking tech too?" Stark griped while taking a shot at an Ock Bot himself. Neatly taking the thing down just as it was about to attack Cap's backside. "What the hell is going on with this woman, she was meant to be specialized in cybernetics?"
"Stark!" Cap yelled out, leaping into the air and swinging his shield at the ground, smacking another bot into pieces. "The meltdown, how do we stop it?"
"Without the water, we-" Just as he was about to explain a bot rocketed into him and took him through a wall.
"Stark!" The blond super soldier screamed the man's name once more.
With a stroke of his hammer against the ground, Thor screamed.
"Enough!"
Lightning shot out, hitting everything, but me and Cap. The six remaining bots fell to the ground, fried to bits, and now on fire. But as I found after walking towards the computer…
"You stupid fuck! You broke the computer, now what do we do?"
(Louise O'Reilly: Stark Tower)
She sat down in the lunchroom, this time without Pat there to ramble on about his day. It was typically a highlight of her day, long office work wasn't the most glamorous of roles, especially when compared to the life of a super-powered reporter whose idea of a short trip was anywhere in the world. When he wasn't gloating, Pat was always interesting to listen to. If only because of his horrible ability to actually describe anything, once the Taj Mahal was described as an upside-down Beyblade with two sticks by its side.
If Louise hadn't known what the damn thing he went to look at was in the first place, she would've never been able to fathom that it was the Taj Mahal.
Without this prime source of entertainment, Louise had been left to herself for the last two lunches, bored out of her mind. Not even Becca and? little boyfriend Ricky had been by in the last few days. So the young woman ate her lunch in boredom, while Pat went out there and enjoyed the excitement of the superhero life. Never were any boring lunches with spies… and if a text from the blue man himself was to be believed, Captain America himself.
A loud buzz of her phone startled her out of her funk, answering the thing as a man on fire would jump into a pond.
"Pat?" Louise responded hopefully, having not bothered to even check the Caller ID.
"Nope, that's the wrong Catholic you got there," Murdock, that blind vigilante friend of Pat's, answered instead. "Sorry for the sudden call, but something's come up and I need a hand."
"Not usually the gal to call for this stuff," The redhead replied coyly. "Pat's too busy with SHIELD to bother answering your call?"
"..."
"What?"
"See… I… can't… actually get a connection to him," The Lawyer responded with a hesitancy that came from worrying about an explosive reaction. As if Louise was so easily rattled, her Pops had been in the mob, she knew not to explode at the first sign of trouble. "I'm sure that he's just in some secret facility that blocks out calls."
"... Fine," She sighed, "What do you want from me?"
"I need to get into Stark Tower without anyone spotting me," he started to explain. "There's no time to scout out the place for an opening."
Louise stood up from her seat, leaving the sandwich half-eaten while she made her way towards the elevator. Her heartbeat shot up as her meal was spiked.
"I'm guessing there's a good reason I'm about to get fired?"
"Doctor Octavius is in the building."
Author's Note: Hello everyone, and welcome to the next chapter of the story. Now that I'm past the parts that haven't changed in the Avengers movie, things are getting much easier to write... in terms of plot at least.
In terms of actually writing the story, things are about the same. Slower than I'd personally like but faster than I'd hate. A decent speed. We've also entered the first real bit of trouble for the Avengers.
Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up by the end of this week or the start of the next.