Avenger or Assassin? (UNDERGOING HEAVY EDITING)

The Great Escape

{Steve}

I paced back and forth in the hallways of the Stark Tower. Tony had let his snarky attitude chill enough to let me have a room to stay in while I found another apartment. It'd been four months since we'd had to leave Natasha at Loki's base. S.H.I.E.L.D. had deemed it unsafe to return as most of our resources were depleted. We'd all healed quickly, but we were still shaking off other things. Fury sent us on short, seemingly meaningless missions, that didn't satisfy our need for justice.

I missed Natasha. Despite her cold blooded killer attitude, if you got past that, she was an okay woman. I tried not to get on her bad side, but she tolerated our annoying quirks with a mild sarcastic comment or a blank attitude. Only Clint and I could really afford to prank her. She only took some of her outer walls down for us, and even then she usually masked her real feelings. I couldn't really function with out her around. She wasn't really "friendly" towards us but she gave off a vibe that couldn't be replaced by anything else.

I flipped the TV on to a news channel. The latest news was a big headline. Somebody by the name of "Charlie Mannings" had been assassinated at an event the night before. A Russian slug, untraceable, no rifling. I watched the crowd sitting around the stage. A seat was empty, but whoever was sitting there must've gone to do something. They couldn't have done it.

"Steve, we're heading in to get Nat. You won't want to sit this one out," Fury came through my communicator. "You're on the Quinjet with Thor and Hawkeye."

I suited up, ran through medical, and headed out to the launch pad. We loaded up and flew out. "How are we getting in?" I asked. "Tony's built a screening device. Once we throw it on there, it'll make it perfectly visible," Bruce explained. We landed just outside the coordinates, and Tony flipped a switch on his device, making the bunker visible.

"Thor, I think you and Bruce need to stay at the openings. I'm going to take Hawkeye, Cap, and myself in," Tony ordered. We stepped inside the doorway. Nothing came at us. Loki wasn't even present. I stepped out into the hallway, and naturally that's when Loki appeared with Bucky.

I went head to head with Loki as he charged me. Scepter met shield as we fought. He dove for my head several times, but the shield kept me from most blows. Then Tony stepped in. "Go find her with Hawkeye, I'll get this." He shot an energy blast towards Loki, catching him in the chest and throwing him backwards.

I signaled to Hawkeye that we could move out. We joined in the central room where three rooms split off, then with a silent communication, we went down the two side corridors. As I jogged down, I couldn't help but notice all the weapons, mostly Hydra based or completely alien. I expected Chitauri to just jump out at any moment, but nothing happened.

Then it did. Sleeper soldiers, all sporting a blue gem in the middle of their chests jetted out of nowhere. "Oh come on, people, stop with the Iron Man rip-offs," Hawkeye said. He shot an arrow, sending it to the ground. We fought our way through the hordes, Hawkeye picking them off with precision aim, me throwing my shield and letting it boomerang back to my hand after decapitating several Sleeper Soldiers.

We'd almost made it to the prison cells when the Sleeper Soldiers let their gems loose. We ducked as they zapped everywhere, blue shots of energy shooting around everything.

"She's not here, Cap!" Hawkeye shouted. "Cell's empty." We jogged down an opposite corridor that branched from the main hallway. I heard sounds of battle behind us, as Hulk roared. I opened doors, shield in front of me. I reached a white room. It was immaculately clean. How big was this compound anyway? I turned to a row of white cells with bars on the windows. I broke down each door one by one, advancing with my shield, then letting Hawkeye follow.