The Nikki Wolf Chronicles || Avengers

CHAPTER (16) SIXTEEN

I'd been expecting it for a while, but I just wish it wasn't in the back of a van next to Captain America, with Iron Man at the wheel, and Black Widow next to him.

After Steve and Tony had made a lot of wise crack jokes about Clint and her, using 'Blackeye' as an identification, it had come to my attention that she's one of the six. I guess I should've realized that all along.

Anyway.

It's at this time that my common sense decides to sprint to my train of thought, and hit the conductor right in the face.

"Holy cow," I manage in between breaths. I feel a surge of adrenaline, excitement, and maybe a little fear from being surrounded and locked in a van with three super heroes.

Super heroes.

"Nikita... Are you alright?" Steve asks, reaching out to me. I flinch away, just slightly, but he takes the hint. Natasha looks back at us, and I see Tony take fleeting glimpses, though he mainly keeps his eyes on the road, thankfully.

"You are all... such big people. I mean, not big. I mean, Hulk, he's huge. In a good way," I fumble, and I feel my cheeks reddening. "Um... You're all heroes of New York. Of the world. I'm sitting in a Home Depot rental with celebrities."

Tony laughs. "I'm the real celebri-- Oof!"

"Shut up, Stark." I give a small smile at Natasha and Tony's attempt to simmer my shock down. She must have slammed Tony in the gut.

"Don't think too much about it, Nikita," I hear, and I look over to the voice's owner, Steve. Natasha and Tony agree by a nod of their head. "Just try to imagine us as regular people, because we are. Don't treat us any differently."

I have a fleeting memory of when Clint had been exposed as Hawkeye, and he pleaded for me not to change the way I had thought of him. And how I was rude... I realize the folly-- there's no need to be harsh.

Tony ruins the moment by saying, "Right. But, I mean, Super Soldier here was jacked up with steroids, basically, by my father. I am a billionaire, and Natasha is an assassin. Otherwise, we're just a couple of regular Joes."

I can't help but sigh at this.

"Thanks, Tony. But Steve, that helps. I mean, if I just look past your... ah, your muscle, I just forget who you guys are."

"Yes, but don't forget Jarvis," Tony states.

I pause in thought, and then say aloud, "Jarvis?" Oh, please, not another super human, I add to myself.

"Just a rather very intelligent system," he replies, simply.

"What is?"

"Jarvis!"

At first, I continue to be confused. Then I realize it's an acronym, and the dots connect. J.ust A.nother R.ather V.ery I.ntelligent S.ystem. Wow, Tony, you have a great way of naming things. Instead, I say, "Who's JARVIS? I mean, where is it?"

In short, I feel totally stupid.

Natasha jumps in, before Tony can make a snide remark, and says, "JARVIS is Tony's artificial intelligence computer program." I make it seem as if I caught all that, but I'm still getting over the fact that Steve is really old.

Taking a few deep breaths, I close my eyes and fall into a peaceful state. My 'freak out' moment didn't end up being that big of a 'freak out.' I push a strand of my hair out of my face, and my fingers brush against my scratch. I wince and Steve, in all his American gloriousness, asks if I'm in a lot of pain. I assure him I'm not.

"Where are we going, again?"

Tony takes a sharp left turn, but I'm stretched out on the floor of the van, and this time I don't go tumbling around.

"Where I was held. A woman, ex-Agent Jenkins, disappeared after I took out her lackeys. I want to see if she's there," Natasha says. I want to hear more about what had happened, but she clams up after, and I don't dare ask.

Instead, of course, Tony does. Natasha looks straight ahead, and we all know she doesn't want to speak. That's why we all show signs of shock when she lets us in on the loop.

"She has an awful plan to turn everyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. against each other."

Steve immediately says, "Sounds like Loki, when he successfully made the six of us fight. That's how he got so far into his plan."

"Who's Loki?" I ask. It's hard not to think of them as extraordinary beings when they keep talking about things I can't ever relate to.

Tony has a grim expression as he says, "Loki is Thor's brother. He's, essentially, the bad guy."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, 'why?'"

I give him a demeaning glance before explaining. "Don't all 'bad guys' have a reason? Does he want revenge?"

"Sort of. He's not an Odinson. Odin took him from his home planet. He's a... frost giant. That's still weird for me to say. But, Thor is king of Asgard, if you will, and Loki still thinks he deserves it. He's pissed because he would never have stood a chance to be ruler, so he came here, to Earth, and tried to rule us. Starting with New York."

"This is the place. Pull over," Natasha says, suddenly. We come to a stop, and I scramble out. My eyes feast upon a crumbling structure of brick, with a door that's half off his hinges.

"Huh," I hear Steve grunt.

--- --- ---

"Where are we?" Thor demands, looking out the window. Being the last out of S.H.I.E.LD., he was forced to sit in the back, with Bruce driving. "The turn was the last one!"

"We couldn't go down that road," Bruce says, keeping his cool in check. "Did you not see the 'One Way' street sign?" Clint grins, his feet up on the dashboard. He has his uniform on, and his quiver and bow are under the glove box.

"I should be driving," Thor replies, snippily. "Signs mean nothing. We could be there by now."

"Where's the fire?"

"What fire?"

This time, Clint sarcastically responds. "It's rhetorical. And, when it's not, he's asking what the rush is. You know? Since most people run from a fire."

His expression turns stormy. "I do not run from fears." He thinks of the frost giants, back when Odin abolished him to Earth, stripped of his powers, to teach him to control himself. It was like a free anger management class. His mind drifts to Jane, and his emotions flit to happiness and worry.

Five minutes later, they pull up to an advanced-looking building, with smooth, white, glossy walls, and a glass door. The building is pulled way away from the city, but it's within civilization.

"There's something weird about this place," Clint notes. He can hear Tony's voice in his head, saying, "You don't say?"

"I've been in here twice, and one by my own choice. It's fine, let's go." Thor rushes to get out from the back seat, practically kicking the door down. His pride is hurt, and he feels better now that he isn't a robe-wearing, chain link-clad god in the backseat of a car thats roof is too short.

Clint shakes his head, but finally gets out of the car when Bruce does.

"I'm getting weird vibes."

"Loosen up... Is that the term? Your mortal mind is only imagining fears," Thor says, as they reach the glass entrance, and Bruce starts to open the door.

Clint sees the trip wire a second too late.