Alone Together

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As it turns out, no one had heard from Helen Cho in some time which had everyone worried. I didn't quite understand why, but I figured that my people skills still weren't up to par yet so I just nodded and looked worried to please Steve.

Plans were being made and it was quickly decided that Steve, Natasha, Clint, and I would be going to Korea to look for Helen while Tony went to the NEXUS to see what he could find before he joined us.

The worried look on Steve's face set me on edge; I hated it when he was worried. My powers allowed me to be more in tune with other people, but with Steve I didn't need my powers to feel what he was feeling, it just came naturally.

"If Ultron is really building a body..." When he spoke, I could feel the tension coming off him in waves and it made me want to vomit.

Tony looked just as on edge, which wasn't comforting in the slightest. "He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his blonde hair, "You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me." I smiled at my super soldier and he returned it glowingly.

Nick Fury placed his hands down on the kitchen table, "I'll drop Banner off at the tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

To me it seemed like that question was one of the rhetorical variety, but of course Tony had an answer. Smirking sarcastically he said, "She's all yours, apparently. What are you going to do?"

Fury shrugged, "I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope." And here I was hoping Fury would be coming to us with a master plan on how to save the day complete with bullet points and a diagram. Bummer.

With that we bid goodbye to Laura and left the cozy farmhouse to embark on a potentially dangerous mission. Steve and I sat in the back of the Quinjet while Nat piloted and Clint sat in the front with her for the flight to Korea.

Once again I found myself sitting on the floor against Steve's legs as we made the flight to Helen's lab. It was a relatively quiet trip; everyone was too consumed with their thoughts to put any real effort into a conversation. My mind kept wandering back to the peace of Clint's home. I had never experienced anything like that before and I found myself yearning for a life like that. Maybe one day that could be you and Pietro. I tried to picture that; Pietro and I living together away from the poisonous reach of HYDRA. It would be a life full of love and laughter, maybe a kid or two. Knowing me and my inability to care for another living creature we should probably start with something hard to kill like a cactus. Shut up brain. I couldn't afford to think like that right now.

Luckily my reprieve was soon broken by our arrival in Korea. Steve and I bid a terse farewell to Nat and Clint as we stepped out of the plane and onto the roof of a building with a view of the U-Gin Genetic Research Lab. Steve spoke to our friends back in the Quinjet through the comm system, telling them to stay close to our position while we checked the lab out.

I had a bad feeling as we entered the lab, and that feeling was reaffirmed when I saw Helen Cho laying wounded in a puddle of blood and glass. The entire lab was destroyed; machines were broken and bodies were splayed across the floor.

Steve ran to Helen side instantly, reaching out to try and stop her wounds from bleeding. I wasn't sure what good that would do, from where I was standing she seemed to be in pretty bad shape.