✓ THE SHIFTER, marvel

two

2

When the new jets touched down and dozens of agents came flying out of the large doors, Torrance took off. She weaved in and out of people, dodging questions as she tried to look for a familiar face.

Fury found her before she found him.

He stood at the base of the ramp leading into one of the jets. He stared directly at her, arms crossed and looking more than confused. "What the hell happened here?" he asked once she approached him. "I let you go on a fun little scouting mission and everyone ends up dead?"

"Hydra," she snapped, ignoring his questions. "It was all Hydra! They sent one of their operatives to infiltrate our systems. She came on the mission and destroyed all the evidence." Torrance felt the burn of the lie leaving her mouth when she told him everything had been destroyed, because not everything was gone. She had the tapes, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him. He couldn't know...at least not yet. She wanted a chance to look a them herself.

She did this constantly and has still yet to be caught. And what's wrong with a little deep dive by yourself before projecting it to everyone? There was a chance the tapes were fried, busted, broken, whatever, so it wouldn't even really matter if she got a glimpse at them first.

"Figured," mumbled Fury, walking through the snow and towards the smoking building. There was a group of agents huddled around the exterior with hoses of hot water. She followed closely, wanting nothing more than to go home. He continued to speak through a cough as they neared the smoke, "So, the Hydra agent killed everyone?"

Torrance nodded, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Tried to kill me too."

"Where is she now?" Before she could answer, Fury groaned and pointed to the smoking hole in the ground where the plane had once been. "Let me guess, she's in there?"

She nodded, looking to the ground as she murmured, "I kinda-sorta-killed her, sir."

"Not surprised."

"What are we going to do now?"

"You're going to go fill out a report and then go home," he told her. "And I'm going to make sure everyone is doing their job right."

"But I should stay and help--"

"You've done enough, Avery. We got this here."

She nodded, turning on her heel and going in search for someone to file a report out for. The closer she got to the jet that could take her home, she let the thought of filing a report leave her mind. It was an accident of course, she didn't mean to get on the jet and tell the pilot to take her home. 

She was in shock, obviously.

~

She got home later that night. She opened the doors to the bar, barely acknowledging Donnie and Santiago who were chatting at one of the tables. She passed them without a second thought as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. But, once she got halfway, she abruptly turned on her heel and jogged back down to snatch the basket of tortilla chips on the counter the men were eating from.

She gave them a grin before running back up the stairs.

She unlocked her door and pushed her way inside, dropping the coat she took from the basecamp on the floor once she closed the door. She plopped the basket of chips on the table, stuffing a few in her mouth for good measure. Gathering her old tape players, along with an extremely old walkman, all from her closet, she slipped the tape inside and slid her chunky headphone into place on her head.