The Raven and the Hawk (My MCU #1)

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Raven sat cross-legged on her bed picking at a bowl of popcorn that had been delivered to her half an hour ago and staring at the phone laying in front of her. So far, she'd only received one text telling her that they were in the air.

On the ground.

Her foot twitched and she couldn't seem to get it to stop. Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the operation step-by-step and move-by-move. The first thing, obviously, was getting into Simon's compound. Her eyes shot open as information she had obtained a year or so ago came back to her. Her brother had purchased a large quantity of thermal mines but there was no indication that he had redistributed them. She could only assume he kept them for himself. Grabbing her phone, she began typing frantically.

Rather than exploding like a regular mine, these used an intense thermal charge to disintegrate whoever stepped on them. The advantage being less property damage, and no explosion to warn others on the property. They should have their own heat signatures though. That meant Clint and Natasha would be able to navigate with infrared glasses. After she sent the message she bit her lip and waited for Coulson's response.

Message relayed and received. Good catch.

She sighed in relief. After that, each text message she got made her feel a little more at ease. Her friends were doing their job and thus far hadn't run into any issues they couldn't overcome.

Large guard presence on property. Evaded or eliminated.

Inside main building. Security system overridden. Laser grids and cameras shut down.

Target located. Agents moving in.

False locate. Agency presence still undetected. Attempting to reestablish location.

Then there was nothing. Five. Ten. Fifteen minutes passed with no update. Raven fidgeted resisting the urge to text Coulson. She didn't want to distract him. It was over an hour later when there was a knock on her door. It swung open without her responding and she stared at her visitor with wide eyes.

Agent Coulson stood in the hall outside her door in tactical gear. "Suit up, Agent Sterling. And make it fast. We've got less than six minutes before they figure out what I did to the cameras."

She hopped up from the bed, already dressed in her field uniform just in case she was needed. With her good hand, she grabbed the duffle of weapons she'd prepared as well. She could equip them on the plane. "Let's go," she said as she stepped past him.

"That was certainly fast," he said and headed toward the hangar. She followed closely behind.

"Is it just us?" she asked as they stepped into the back of a jet.

"And the pilot. Friend of mine." He strode to the front of the plane. "Wheels up, May. Get us out of here."

Raven stepped up behind him to watch out the window while they took off. The pilot, a severe looking Oriental woman, nodded at her in greeting. Once they were in the air and a good distance away, Raven went back to see about her weapons. Coulson followed.

"What happened?" she asked as she strapped on her thigh holsters and ammunition belt.

Coulson shook his head. "We're not entirely sure. We lost contact. Indicators were that their comm units were destroyed."

"Shit." That wasn't a hell of a lot of info. What if they were dead? No, she couldn't think that way. Not only were they good at their jobs, it wasn't like her brother to kill them so quickly. He'd want information first. And if he figured out they were SHIELD, he'd want a lot of information. "What's the plan?"