My Avengers (1)

Chapter 4

(Y/n's POV)

The bike ride is fast. Faster than I ever could have imagined. Of course, the vehicle has been enhanced with engineering my brain can't comprehend, but it's impressive. Really impressive. And I must admit, it's nice being able to touch someone without sending them flat on their ass with an electrical current. It's not quite human touch, but it's close enough.

The Shield compound is insane, to say the least. It doesn't look particularly spectacular from the outside, but the technology and the architecture inside is breathtaking. Far more advanced than anything anyone else has in the world.

"I would advise not touching anything," Natasha says as she stores her bike to one side and takes off her riding gloves. "Not cuz of your thing, just because you don't know what it does. Even I don't mess with this stuff."

She leads me through a winding maze of corridors that seems to last forever. If I did try to escape from this place, I'd be fucked. I'd go round and round in circles until I was delirious.

"Just in here," she walks into a large room filled with people in front of screens, talking into headsets.

There's a round table right in the centre, surrounded by empty chairs.

"You stay here, take a seat, and I'll go get Director Fury."

With that, she's gone.

I feel more comfortable standing than sitting. Even if I don't know my way out, I can still run. It's harder to hit a moving target.

If I said that I didn't feel intimidated by all of this, then I'd be lying.

I take off my gloves, but keep my arms firmly crossed so my hands are hidden as I start to pace back and forth.

"They cornered you too huh?"

"Shit!" I jump and turn around.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. People can usually hear me coming."

"Um, no. It's fine. Just seems that people keep appearing behind me today. Sorry, did you say cornered?"

"Yeah that's how they got to me," this tall, brunette man rubs the back of his neck with a nervous laugh before adjusting his glasses. He then stretches out his hand, "I don't believe we've met. Bruce Banner."

I look at his hand warily, "I'm y/n y/l/n. You should probably put that away, you don't want me to touch you."

"Ah, have they told you about me? I'm not just gonna flip out all of a sudden or anything, if that's what you're worried about."

"No no, I have to be honest I don't actually know who you are. I don't really know what this place is. But um, no, the whole no contact thing is my thing."

"I see. And what is your thing?" he adjusts his glasses again.

I quickly read into his head and see that he is genuinely curious about me. I'm the only one he hasn't read about, and he's intrigued.

Who are the others?

"Y/n?"

"Hmm? Oh sorry. Yeah, my thing...." I hold out my hand a little and send a small current of electricity down to my fingers.

He watches in awe as it crackles between my fingers, "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah. Cool to look at, not so much when I have to use it."

"You don't like it?"

"You like yours? Whatever it is?"

"Touche. You really don't know about me? I thought Romanoff would've given you the heads up."

"Nope. No idea. I can't lie, I've spent the last few years keeping kinda under the radar, so I'm a bit behind with, all this," I say and sweep my arm out in a generic gesture. Instead, I accidentally fire off my electricity and a chair becomes a smoking carcass. "Shit," I mutter and quickly put my gloves back on.

"Wow," he laughs nervously. "Don't point that thing at me huh?"

"If she does, I'll protect you Banner. Don't you worry."

We both turn as another voice joins our conversation.

"Steve Rogers, at your service."

"Now you, I've read up on," Bruce walks forward eagerly to shake his hand. "Captain America, your story is legendary."

"Well, I wouldn't say that, but it's nice to know that people can still put a name to this handsome face."

"Gentlemen," a man in a long black leather coat, with a black eyepatch over his left eye, walks up the stairs and stands at the table, a beige folder placed under his arm. "And lady, glad you could all make it. I'm Director Fury. Banner, thank you in particular for accepting the invitation."

"Well, you did ask so politely," his voice drips with sarcasm. "So, just quickly, exactly how long am I staying for?"

"As soon as we get our hands on the Tesseract, you can leave whenever you like."

"I'm sorry, what?" I jump in. "We're going after the Tesseract?"

"Romanoff didn't brief you on the mission?"

"Must have slipped her mind," I say, my tone as cold as ice. "Care to fill me in?"

He sighs and tosses the folder on the table, "The Tesseract was discovered when Rogers here was rescued from the ocean. 70 years ago. It was retrieved by Howard Stark, and we believe that we can use the Tesseract as a source of unlimited sustainable energy. The Tesseract has been stolen," he's tapping away at keys that have appeared on the table, and all of a sudden an image is displayed in the air. "This is Loki. He's not exactly from around here, but you don't need to know those details just now. The important thing is, Loki has the Tesseract. And we need to get it back."

"Where exactly are we with that?" Steve steps forwards and asks.

"We're sweeping through every accessible camera on the planet. Mobile phones, laptops, iPads. You name it, we're gonna search it."

"It's not gonna find it in time," Romanoff says as she leans against a railing.

"You need to narrow the field," Bruce interrupts her. "Call every lab that you know. Tell them to get their Spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for Gamma rays. I have some stuff I can do, but I need a room."

"Romanoff, will you please show Doctor Banner to his laboratory?" Fury turns away as his attention is caught by his... second in command? I don't really know how things work around here.

Natasha and Bruce leave the room, leaving just me and Steve. We look as lost as each other.

"Well, they lost me at Spectrometers," I sigh and throw the folder down on the table.

"That's okay," he says. "They lost me at mobile phones."