Third in the Timeline series |
After being told she was the infamous Agent 4, that every S.H.I.E.L.D agent thought was a rumour, Clara decides to get back in the field. Her old boss, and presumed dead, Phil Coulson guides her as she reunites with ol...
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When Clara opened her eyes she was standing in the same lab, next to the same metal chamber. The only difference, now the lab was teaming with soviet scientists and she had just been dumped in the middle of them.
The S.H.I.E.L.D logo stood out on her tactical gear making it clear she was the enemy. It was practically the same as the SSR. She stood out like a sore thumb.
They stood stock still as Clara was transported into the middle of the room. For a while nobody moved. Clara gazed around the room, her mind working in overdrive as she tried to think of a plan to get out of here alive and then get back to her own time.
She didn't even know what year it was but the clothing the scientists wore under their lab coats was surprisingly similar to that of the 40s.
In order to get back to 2016 Clara would need to get her hands on the scientists' papers to figure out how this time machine works. To do that she'd need all the scientists to leave so they wouldn't try to stop her. Or at least to take them all out.
Then one scientist made his move, grabbing an old fashioned looking talk back system and shouting something in a language Clara didn't understand but from the rage in his voice, she knew she needed to leave and soon.
As soon as she took even one step, the scientists reacted. They backed away from her in fear. Clara took another step toward the door and they stepped further away from her. Perhaps disabling the scientists would be easier than she thought.
Suddenly the door to the lab was thrown open and a whole team of soviet agents burst in. They were dressed from head to toe in protective gear and all clutching powerful looking, if inelegantly designed, blasters.
Great.
Clara drew her gun and was immediately fired at. She dove for cover underneath one of the lab's benches. A ball of crackling yellow shot out of the end of the agent's canon and shot where Clara had been standing only seconds ago. That's not normal!
It wooshed straight over the bench and collided with the time machine, eliminating all of Clara's hopes to get back home. She was stuck in the past...again!
Clara scrambled around on the floor. If she got up, she'd be blasted again and would undoubtedly be killed. They had some pretty powerful weapons and all Clara had on her was an ordinary pistol.
The agents were ushering all the scientists out of the lab. Clara crawled from bench to bench away from the agents but further into the lab- further away from the exit. Her plan now: get out alive.
Her hand brushed across a newspaper that had fallen to the floor. She snatched it up and peered at the date on the front page: 1946. It was 1946?!
A half finished lab creation clattered to the floor in the clamour. A bullet wizzed past and sent it crashing down by Clara's head. She didn't know what it was but it was big enough for her to hide behind and looked pretty strong.
Being friends with Steve had certainly prepared her for her daring escape. Clara dashed to her feet, raising whatever the thing she'd found on the floor was to cover her upper body. If it was painted red, white and blue, she'd be a rival to Captain America.
Without thinking it over, Clara charged toward the door. If she'd thought about it for even a second she'd have realised how crazy her plan was but she struggled on, running head first into the enemy fire, still in the naive state of mind that her plan could somehow work.
Perhaps if she didn't know it would fail, it wouldn't. She stuck her hand out from behind the makeshift shield and shot at every agent she saw with the pistol in a vain attempt to clear a path to the door.
Soon enough she ran out of bullets and resorted to bashing them in the face with the clunky piece of machinery she was hiding behind.
Somehow, God knows how, she had made it to the door, having punched and kicked her way through the men. Fueled by adrenaline, Clara somehow made it out of the room alive.
As soon as she reached the door, she was met by the sound of frantic footsteps of more agents charging down the corridor toward her. So she ran in the opposite direction, unaware if she was heading closer to the exit or further into the base.
Part of her wanted to be going further in. Not because she was dosed up on adrenaline and wanted more action, but if it really was 1946, then Clara had a pretty good feeling she knew where Bucky was. And Clara didn't think she could leave him behind again.
As luck would have it, Clara found her way to the exit. She remembered it from the way in although this time the doors were working. The key pad bleeped with each incorrect input of the password. The key pad was working, that didn't mean it was new.
The password was a four digit number, and luckily four of the numbers had been worn away. 0, 1, 7 and 9.
0,1,7 and 9. That meant there would be 24 different combination possibilities. But that would prove no difficulty for a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who trained at the academy of communications. Decoding keypads was the first thing they were taught.
People are most likely to choose a memorable password. A year perhaps? 1970? But why would a password from the 40s be 1970?
Then Clara remembered one piece of crucial information that every agent was taught: more natural oils were transferred from fingers to the keypad on the first digit so the one that was the most worn away was most likely to be the first number. That was 0. Not 1970 then.
So Clara sought out the most visible of the four numbers. 9. And 1 was equally visible. That doesn't help at all...0791 maybe? But what so memorable about that? 0719, a birthday? 19th of July.
She tapped the numbers in and the light on the keypad changed from red to green. HYDRA really needs a better password. Maybe that's why everyone in 2016 tells you not to use your birthday as a password.
The door flew open, letting in an icy wind from across the frozen waste land. Without a second look over her shoulder at the team of agents still running after her, Clara sprinted across the snow. She had to get away from here.
Clara knew she needed to get back and quickly so she would make her way to the only place she knew would have another time machine. America- the home of Howard Stark.
