Girl At War

Empath - 20

"What do you mean, it's gone?" Clint was the first to speak.

"Just that!" Eloyse was quickly declining into panic mode. "Shyden gave it to me, and now I lost it!" she practically wailed, still looking around her area. Wanda slipped from her chair to sit beside Eloyse.

"We'll find it." she assured the younger girl. Eloyse looked up with hopeful eyes. Wanda nodded reassuringly.

"I had it when I came in from keeping watch." she offered. Steve thoughtfully gazed around as if the ring would be hanging in the air. 

"Alright, scatter out and search." He gave the order. Eloyse had helped them, and she looked absolutely broken over the loss. Besides, the team had nothing to lose. They weren't going to leave with evening quickly coming. The next couple hours found Earth's mightiest heroes scouring a base abandoned by deadly enemies, on a different planet, searching for a ring that connected a Hopian to her brother. 

And they found it.

It was Natasha's private hunch, which she didn't hesitate to carry out, even drafting Clint to help. Foot by foot, she painstakingly criss-crossed the training room where they'd sparred. She had seen the ring before, but not taken much notice of it. Bruce remembered examining it, and with Eloyse's help, created a picture that was shown to each Avenger. So that was why, when Clint lifted the small round object from the floor, he confidentially let loose a yell that echoed off the training room walls and made each teammate who wore a earpiece to cringe. Steve, with his sensitive super-soldier hearing, ripped the com out with a feverant curse.

"Language, goody-boy!" Tony chirped.

Natasha hurried over to Clint. "Oh good." she dexterously swiped the object off Clint's jealously guarded hand, racing away to find Eloyse. Clint was frozen for a moment, gawking at the nerve of the Russian assassin, then he was on her heels. Eloyse's ring was delivered in a dramatic fashion, and it was Pietro who actually ended up handing her the lost treasure. Natasha came tearing in a few moments later, her temper red as her hair. 

"Oh, you already have it..." She glared daggers at Pietro, who quickly backed off. Eloyse hugged the ring to herself, softly repeating a Kaheric prayer of thanks under her breath. Natasha eyed her strangely.

Gradually, the rest of the Avengers returned. That is, all except Bucky and Clint. Bucky, it was made known, was taking his shift guarding. Clint had just vanished. For a while it was a mystery, and source of worry, for everyone. Until Bruce recalled seeing Natasha running with the archer in hot pursuit. The team looked at Natasha, just realizing she had put no input on the whereabouts of her friend.

"Where is he?" Steve crossed his arms, scowling at Nat. She returned the look with a glare that would have shaken anyone but a super-soldier or other master assassin.

"He's fine.." She sulked.

"Where is he?"

"He'll be along soon." she refused to give out the information. Steve gave up.

"Alright, but if he's dead, I'll bring him back to life to help me plague you with guilt."

Nat shrugged as if the prospect of being haunted by the ghost of her best friend she'd murdered didn't gaze her. She rummaged around in the messy room, finally coming up with her book. The Avengers all settled into comfortable places again. They were waiting on an order from Steve to move out, and Steve didn't know where their next target was. Besides, as Thor pointed out, it was "darker than a blind man's view". Eloyse curled up, content to just look at her beautiful ring. She could almost see Shyden's brilliant blue eyes gazing back at her. Man. She missed him!