『ᴀʀᴄʜᴀɴɢᴇʟ || ᴀ ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ ꜰᴀɴꜰɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

Ch. 18: Lay Low

"This camp is where I was trained," Steve spoke, his voice sounding over the crickets that chirped away in the night. I was looking around, hands in my pockets as Natasha held a device in the air.

"Change much?" She asked.

"A little."

"Well, 70 years normally does that to things," I hummed, looking at the eroded and rusted metal railings, taking one hand out to brush against it, "I bet it was a look prettier back then, huh?"

Steve didn't respond, and I turned to look towards him. He was looking at nothing in particular, his eyes following the air.

I pursed my lips in thought, before turning to Natasha, "This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio."

"Are you saying that whoever wrote the rile used a router to throw people off?" I asked, raising a brow as I looked at Natasha.

A small smile appeared on her face, and she nodded, "You're right Nicole. I would assume that's what they did."

I groaned, "So a dead end. Fabulous."

"What is it?" Natasha asked, looking towards Steve. I glanced to him as well, seeing something flash in his blue eyes. He glanced between the two of us, before walking towards a concrete structure.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," he explained, taking his shield and hitting the lock that held the door shut. He glanced towards us then gestured his head to the door as he opened it, "Ladies first."

I made no comment as I started to walk down the stairs that were shown from behind the door, readying my hands from my pockets in case someone was down here. Natasha followed, as well as Steve. I noticed a switch connecting to one of the pillars, and flicked it.

Lights turned out throughout the area, old desks, chairs and phones visible. My eyes instantly focused on the symbol at the end of the hall.

SHIELD.

"This is SHIELD," Natasha stated, and I turned myself to look at the two of them, a shocked expression on my face.

I looked to Steve, "What would a SHIELD base be doing here? Well... an old one, at that," I added at the end, looking at the old phones that sat on each desk. Filling cabinets were stored in each section, "Definitely out of date with today's technology."

"Maybe this is where SHIELD started," Steve suggested, walking forward with the same confused expression that Natasha had.

I brought my hands over the dust that littered the desks as we continued to walk through the room, and my attention was taken away from the older fashioned room, my eyes focused on a door, "We have a door."

"Is it locked?" Natasha asked, looking in my direction from the desk she was at. In her hand was one of the old telephones. It obviously wouldn't work.

"I don't know," I muttered, walking over towards it as I went to grab the handle. Office was written in black letters on the covered window. I twisted it slowly and opened the door. My gaze filtered around the room, pushing through without saying anything else.

Photos were attached to the wall- in black and white. A man wearing a military outfit was on the far left. In the middle was a man in a suit, with clean slicked back hair and a mustache that reminded me about Tony. On the right was a woman wearing a white undershirt and black dress.

"Stark's father."

I turned my head around to look at Natasha and Steve, who were coming over to me. I turned to look at the man in the middle, "No wonder why he reminded me of Stark... That's Howard..."