Dead Memories

21

Chapter Twenty-One

One good thing about being an Avenger was that the NYPD recognized her when she led the group of women out of the building.

'Get them out of here!' Natasha ordered as the women ran behind the line of police cars. 'But any man who comes out of the building needs to be detained.'

'On what grounds?' one policeman asked.

'Alien mind-control,' Natasha said. It was not accurate, but it would have to do. The man's eyes widened.

'Why just the men?' the other cop asked from the opposite side of the car.

'It only affects men,' Natasha said. She needed to make sure that nobody under the Asgardian woman's control escaped, if she had to use the police to do that, so be it.

'Is it contagious?' the cop asked immediately, he seemed nervous.

'No, but you could ask for more female colleagues as back-up. Just in case.'

The two officers looked at one another for a moment.

'Everything clear?' Natasha asked, just to be sure. You never knew it with cops, sometimes they just wanted to get the hell out, others tried to play hero.

'All men coming out from the building need to be detained, yes ma'am,' the younger of the two said. Natasha nodded and turned around to get back inside.

She had not seen either Clint, Tony, or Steve for a very long time now. So they were her priority at the moment. She got back into the building through a side entrance, because she was not about to get in the middle of whatever was happening in the main lobby. She could hear the sound of the fight even from this far away. But she called Thor, and he would be here soon enough.

She knew one of the stairways was good as gone, so there was no way to access the upper floors through there. The other one was far from her location, but she had no other choice but to head that way.

She prepared herself for a long search, but she needn't have bothered as it turned out, because she stumbled upon both Clint and Steve as soon as she reached the first floor. Steve looked relatively unharmed, Clint though...

'What happened?' she asked as she hurried closer. Clint was not that bad off, but his face was a bit of a mess, bruised and swollen. Steve had Clint's arm pulled across his shoulder. He probably insisted, because Clint had a stubborn look on his face. He always tried to walk on his own if people let him.

'Tony's compromised,' Steve said.

'Tony did this?' she asked and signed the question too in case Clint's hearing aid was damaged or he was too dazed to read lips.

'He surprised me, okay?' Clint said defensively. 'I spotted him and wanted warn him, he seemed normal...' he hissed in pain, talking pulled on some of the cuts on his face. He pronounced some words wrong too, so his mouth had to hurt a lot. 'I guess I was too late. I turned around for one second, and he smashed a chair into my face... dammit, I totally had my guard down.'

A chair, yes, Natasha could see it now, the small ragged cuts that were caused by splintered wood, the bruises made by something blunt and heavy. He probably had a concussion... again.