Clint? Laura? Where are you? (Book 1)

Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane?

Chapter 7

The flight was bumpy and kept Natasha awake, she didn't dare put auto piolet on in this weather. The sky was dark, a storm was coming. They flew into a thick dense cloud, rain pumled down onto the roof of the plane getting louder as they went deeper into the cloud. Natasha couldn't see a thing. Suddenly the warning light came on, beeping from all around. Something was directly in their path. Natasha reacted quickly pulling the plane up further into the storm. The cockpit window started to freeze.

"You need to pull down Natasha" Tony said standing behind her. Natasha nodded and gradually pushed the plane down. Looking in front there was a dark shape in the clouds. It was moving, upwards. Pulling to the right just in time so that the objects wing missed them, Natasha let out a sigh of relief.

"What is that?" Tony asked.

"Some sort of ship, but who owns that?" Natasha wondered. The ship finally became visible as it left the clouds.

"Isn't that the Shield logo?" Tony asked.

"Yes, butI thought Shield had gone down last year with Hydra. Natasha?" Steve replied. Natasha stared at the plane for a moment longer, no doubt about it, it was definnitly Shield. Natasha knew about Fury's contingency plans and knew one had worked, but she thought they were staying hinden.

"That's definitly Shield" she said to the others. The docking stabalisers had opened on the top of the plane. Natasha slowly flew into position, the Avenger's quinjet was now magnatised to the plane below. The cargo bay was opened and they went inside of the other plane. Shield agents were lined up along the walls either side. Natasha and the rest of the Avengers were on edge as Shield wasn't meant to exist, especially not to this scale. Several more important agents walked towards them. Natasha recognised some of them; Melinda May, Bobbie Moorse, Leo Fitz and Phillip Coulson. Wait the others don't know that he's still alive, Natasha thought. Tony blinked as he saw Coulson standing there. Steve smiled and Thor whispered something about dark magic. Coulson stepped forward to shake their hands.

"Spoilers" is all Coulson said.

"But how? I saw you die with my very own eyes." Tony exclaimed.

"I'm affraid that's classified information. Agent Romanoff" Coulson said nodding his head towards her, she smiled in return breifly.

"You don't seem very surprised by this Natasha" Steve pointed out.

"That's because I'm not."

"How come?"

"Because I already knew."

"How?"

"Classified" she said and walked off to follow Coulson. The three boys just stood there standing looking at each other.

One very boring meeting later the Avengers had explained everything, well Natasha had anyway.

"Ok then, so you're on your way to India?" Coulson asked double checking he had understood.

"Yes."

"Well, we can take you part of the way" Coulson offered.

"Ok thank you" Natasha agreed. They walked out of Coulson's overly shiney new office and into a lounge where the boys quickly discovered the games consoles. Natasha instead went to find Moorse and May so that she could catch up on what had been going on.

An hour or so later the Avengers were back in their quinjet and ready for take off as they had reached India. The clamps de-magnitised and they had lift off. Flying over dense areas of jungle, they scanned the ground with their eyes, searching for this temple.

"Wait what was that? Back there, I think I saw a break in the tree line." Steve said with speed. Natasha turned the plane around and hovered above where Steve had indicated. He was right there was a gap in the tree line. Using the cameras on the outside of the quinjet they zoomed in, to get a closer look. Sure enough there was a temple. In ruins, but it was there. The quinjet was lowered to the ground carefully, making sure not to hit any of these trees. They exited the quinjet and were hit by moist humid air, strange bird noises and the whispering of the breeze through the trees. The temple was crumbling almost everywhere that Natasha could see. Vines, moss and other various plants were growing up the sides. Old statues and carvings had started to fade away. Natasha noticed that one of the statues was a tiger head.

"We're in the right place" Natasha said.

"How'd you know?" Tony asked, Natasha nodded towards the tiger statue, lying on the floor in disrepear. They walked up the steps of this pyrimid shaped building watching where they placed their feet as if the ground could give away at any time.Natasha spotted a shadow dancing on one of the walls in the enterance. Foot steps could now be heard, they were coming towards them. The Avengers looked ahead of them, once they reached the top of the steps, at the person infront of them.