Always Mine (An MCU Fanfiction)

2: Cold Grasp

It had been a couple of days since Fury contacted me with my next task. It was to help guard a blue glowing cube called the Tesseract. It had been in SHIELD's possession for some time. From what I gathered, it was dangerous to touch, as it emitted gamma radiation beams.

I was surprised to see my mentor, Clint Barton, known as Hawkeye for his sharpshooter skills. He preferred to use a bow and arrow as his primary weapon over a gun. Clint taught me archery and how to aim at a target without missing it. I had the opportunity to meet his wife, Laura, and their two children, Cooper and Lila, numerous times, and I was welcomed as a member of their family. I helped keep their secret, as Clint didn't want his family to be listed in SHIELD's files in case any enemies discovered them.

At times, he can be such a dork. On occasions, we'd pull several pranks on the other agents, including each other and my friends. None of us dared to pull one on Fury; otherwise, he'd have our heads on that, and make us spend an entire freaking day of boot camp!

Clint and I took turns watching the cube as the scientists examined it. The interesting thing was that we were on the rafters. He preferred watching from a distance. I have to admit, being about several feet away was easier to see than being too close and personal.

Dr. Erik Selvig, a middle-aged astrophysicist, was working alongside them. Fury had hired him to examine the Tesseract. I briefly met the astrophysicist last year while in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico. I had been assigned there when Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, landed in the middle of the desert, causing a huge crater. I found it amusing to watch the locals try to lift it, like attempting to pull Excalibur from the stone, especially the part where a guy tried to yank the hammer with his truck, but the bucket came loose. My job was to keep an eye on things around town. However, it all changed when a giant metal being called the Destroyer arrived and demolished half of the town. I got directly involved in trying to evacuate the locals and witnessed Thor taking it out for good. I was close to being hit when the Destroyer itself stopped once it saw me and moved on without hurting me.

And that was how it changed my relationship with another fellow agent, Craig Emmons, who happened to be my ex-boyfriend. He was trained by my dad and had promised the latter that he'd look after me. Craig harshly reprimanded me after he heard that I was at the center of the attack, and that led to a huge argument. I dumped him, figuring that if he was going to continue to keep throwing abusive words at me, saying I should've stood back and that I was stupid to run into the center of the battle. I haven't spoken much to him since then. Craig had been trying to talk with me, but I just ignored him and every message from him, figuring he would get on my case. Craig still thought we were together, as if he were denying that we had broken up.

Soon, while Clint had his turn at watching the Tesseract, I pulled out my phone and played Wordscapes. I wish I had brought my Nintendo 3DS, which Vince got for me a while back when it was first released. Gaming helped kill time.

Whenever my parents were gone on a mission for some extended period and weren't back as I expected, I'd stay up late playing the Nintendo, even if it took all night. Mom and Dad would find me sleeping on the couch with one of the games playing on the screen whenever they got back.

Suddenly, the Tesseract began to spike and emit a dangerous amount of gamma rays. I paused the game and slid my phone into my pocket as I heard an announcement for everyone to evacuate the base. My arms and legs shook a bit as my anxiety attack threatened to burst out.

"You alright, Case?" Clint asked, glancing at me for a bit.

"I think so," I nodded, "Something spells both 'danger' and 'trouble' at the same time."