Always Mine (An MCU Fanfiction)

2: The Hawk and the Sparrow

A couple of days after Fury contacted me with my next assignment, I found myself guarding a glowing blue cube called the Tesseract. SHIELD had possessed the cube for quite a while. From what I gathered, it was dangerous to touch, as it emitted gamma energy.

I was surprised to see my mentor, Clint Barton. Most people knew him as Hawkeye, SHIELD's best marksman. 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 prank Fury. Otherwise, he'd have our heads and make us spend an entire day in boot camp.

Clint and I took turns watching the cube as the scientists examined it. He had us perched in the rafters overlooking the lab. He preferred to watch from a distance. I had to admit, watching from several feet away was easier than standing right on top of it.

Dr. Erik Selvig, a middle-aged astrophysicist, was working alongside them. Fury had hired him to examine the Tesseract. I'd met Selvig once before during the incident in New Mexico, when Thor, his hammer, and a giant metal Destroyer had turned a quiet desert town into a war zone.

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 had always been my way of coping with long waits and nervous thoughts. My phone floated from the rafter beside me and into my hand without me having to move. Fury often joked that telekinesis was wasted on someone who mostly used it to grab snacks from across a room.

Suddenly, the Tesseract began to spike and emit dangerous bursts of gamma energy. 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."

"I believe you."

"Talk to me, Doctor," Fury called as he arrived in the underground lab, in his usual black trench leather jacket like Morpheus from The Matrix trilogy, but with the eye patch.

"Director," Selvig nodded, looking up from what he had been doing.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury glanced and inspected the lab.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig stated.

Fury had a straight face as usual. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active...she's behaving,"

"Did you pull the plug?" Fury asked as he and Selvig went around the lab, examining the equipment.

"She's an energy source. We turn off the power; she will turn it back on. If she reaches peak level-" Selvig shook his head as he made his way to the other side of the lab.

"We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space," Fury said, cutting him off.

I found it somewhat amusing when Selvig referred to the Tesseract as a 'she'. Plus, I had no idea Fury had been planning to tap into that kind of energy from deep space.