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CHAPTER EIGHT THE CHITAURI
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
Riley didn't waste a single second after Steve announced that they were leaving in ten minutes. He escaped to the armory and restocked on ammo and guns, and then got to work getting his crossbow out of storage. It had been taken away from him on his last mission. He had shot too early, at a black market dealer he'd been watching for a few weeks. He'd seen the man lash out at his daughter and had seen red, and the next thing he knew, his finger had squeezed on the trigger and the arrow had went flying. Fury hadn't necessarily disapproved of the action—Riley had been sent to spy and then eliminate regardless—but the problem was how public it had been. His crossbow had been locked up ever since, but considering how busy everyone was, he had no problem getting into the part of the armory reserved for more dangerous weapons.
Like a crossbow that could shoot electric arrows.
He'd taken Nat's identification card just in case he wasn't cleared, but when he swiped his own, he was surprised to find that he'd been cleared to enter the dangerous part of the armory. Perhaps that was Fury's intention. Riley had a feeling he knew perfectly well that the Avengers were about to head out without any specific orders. That was what he wanted them to do. Feeling better about sneaking around, Riley entered the armory and went to the touchpad on the wall, swiping through the catalogue until he got to ranged weapons, and then he typed in his name and let it search. He had more than one crossbow in storage, but he chose the electric one and waited for the tech—made by Tony, which wasn't surprising—to bring his weapon out. As he waited, he idly searched for Nat's widow bite bracelets, wondering if she had already taken them out.
She'd been with Riley during his mission that cost him his crossbows, but he wasn't sure if she had also been punished for it. Riley hadn't technically done anything wrong. He bent the rules, but he hadn't actually broken them. Since the widow bites weren't in storage, he could only assume she'd gotten off with little more than a slap on the wrist. He sighed and exited out right when a panel opened on the wall and his crossbow slid out, as well as plenty of electric arrows. He took them, then requested even more electric arrows, just in case. He secured the crossbow and quiver on his back, grabbed the extra arrows when they were brought out, then turned and broke into a run. He cut through the halls as quickly as possible, earning a few glares and grumbles as he made his way to the garage. He arrived just in time to catch Nat, Steve, and Clint arriving at one of the jets. Instead of cutting through the center of it all and catching unnecessary attention, Riley weaved through the side and between other jets until he got to the one they were hijacking.
"Hey, you guys aren't authorized to be in here—" the man cleaning up the jet started. Riley peaked over Steve's shoulder to see who it was. He didn't recognize him, not that it really mattered. Steve didn't let him finish his warning, far too fed up with the days events to have any more patience.
