Elemental {Avengers}

21. You can't catch me

" Maeve, wake up. WAKE UP"

Someone was harshly pushing on my shoulder, shaking me awake from a dreamless stupor.

" WAKE UP, you lazy elemental. WAKE UP"

" okay... okay, I'm awake, you annoying trickster"

I squinted, waking up to Loki driving on a country road, in pitch black darkness, the only thing that could be seen was the dirt road ahead of the Jeep, every so often rabbits running from the lights of the car. My leg, ribs and shoulder still throbbed, but I clenched my teeth, leaning over the seat for more painkillers. I picked a different packet, one that said Non-drowsy and took 4 times the recommended dose again. It was a mystery why it had flared up so suddenly, but I sat back on the seat, sighing in relief as the painkillers did their thing.

" Why did you wake me up? I was having a quite nice sleep, thank-you very much"

Loki kept his eyes on the road. " It has been over 10 hours since the Avengers split up"

I furrowed my eyebrows. That meant that something was wrong.

Or might have been wrong.

The Walkie-Talkie lie in a little compartment beside the seat, sitting there in silence. Had Clint and Nat been captured? Tracked? Mind-Controlled?

No, they were assassins. If anything, they were probably fine. More likely to be in a 5-star resort. Maybe. Steve and Tony were smart, very smart, but Tony did have the habit of being a little arrogant, reckless, loud. I remember looking at his files at one point. Once, he had revealed his location to the entire media, including everyone who wanted him dead, which was a lot of people. He wasn't exactly the most careful. Maybe he had sent his Iron-man suit to his location and they had tracked it.

Well, we couldn't do anything anyway. The only thing we could do was wait for any of the Avengers to contact us. Not exactly the best plan, but it was still a plan. If we didn't hear anything by hour 15, we would have to set up camp somewhere, find an abandoned house or cottage in the countryside, maybe I could use the one that Dimochka used to capture me. Surely, it wouldn't be occupied at the moment, and if Dimochka was smart, he wouldn't go back. I knew the location, which meant that I could send SHIELD agents to guard the place.

" Has anything happened while I was out?" I asked.

" Nope. But I nearly ran in front of a deer, I'm surprised you didn't wake up, honestly."

The corners of my mouth flicked upwards. That would have been a sight to see. Too bad I had been out cold. " Where are we driving too?"

" I saw a sign for Canada a few miles back, so we should be in Canada in.. a couple of minutes."

" Good. It's pretty underpopulated, right? No one would look there first. And also, I've heard that the scenery is gorgeous"

" You're asking me? I don't know much about Midgard, let alone specific countries"

" I thought you learnt about that sort of thing in... Asgard school"

He laughed. " It was too boring. I didn't pay attention in school"

" I wish I didn't" I murmured, and then realising that I changed that tone of the conversation, said "Sorry."

" Don't apolog-"

Suddenly, static sounded in the car. Coming from the Walkie-talkie.

I grabbed it, putting it to the highest volume. Static. It meant that someone was pushing on the button. We both lent over our seats, straining to hear anything from the device.