Reborn From The Void

Chapter 18 - Don't Be A Hero

(Your POV):
I walked out of the interrogation with my head held high. Agent Abrams was a tough one to crack, but was no match to the Void. Leaving him bloody and whimpering in pain, I made my way to the conference room where I knew that the rest of the Avengers were observing our conversation.

"So when are we moving out?" I asked as I walked in, surprised by the expression on their faces. Most of them looked borderline horrified rather than pleased to have gotten the information we were seeking.

"Guys? I got the location of the base, aren't we going to attack before they realize that one of their agents is missing?" I spoke up, hoping to rally a response.

"You learned all that from your parents?" Steve asked, annoying me with his change of topic.

"Yeah, so what? Are you guys not familiar with interrogation tactics? I mean seriously, I was performing interrogations like that when I was seven."

"To be fair, I've had everything she just did done on me," Natasha spoke up, making me remember that most of the Avengers did not share a similar background besides Nat. "In all seriousness, I thought an agent of H.A.M.M.E.R. would be harder to break."

"I have to be honest, I fear that H.A.M.M.E.R. has dropped a bit in quality since Osborn died. I mean, a number of our agents dropped because we weren't sure where our next donor would be found and I think Abrams was part of the new batch. Not as well trained, apparently. Still, he put up a formidable fight. Now, can we get back to the mission."

A moment of silence befell the group before Steve spoke up, "ok so we don't really know what we're getting into, H.A.M.M.E.R.'s had plenty of time to bounce back from the loss of its leaders. We can probably assume that they've found someone new to fund them since Erksine was killed, so they are most likely not low on resources. Not to mention we have now gotten confirmation of an enhanced, although unfortunately we don't know exactly what powers this thing has. We're going to need all hands on deck for this and we have to act quickly before they realize that we have one of their own. Everyone go get suited up and meet at the Quinjet in five, we'll dole out mission assignments on the flight over. Tony, can you get a layout of the building?"

"F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s already on it," he replied, his suit already materializing around him.

I hit the band on my wrist to do the same, immediately heading up to the Quinjet and waiting there for the rest of the team. It did not take us long to assemble and Steve briefed us on our roles while the jet flew itself to the target location.

Natasha and I were paired up for the mission, mostly because we had trained with each other the most and thus knew exactly how the other moved in combat. We took the main entrance of the building, checking for security cameras and disabling them while waiting for the go ahead from the rest of the team. The ambush was going to come from all sides of the building and through the roof as we hoped to box them in and couldn't risk letting any agents escape.

Once all teams reported in, Steve counted us down and we entered the building all at the same time. Debris from the walls blown apart to create an entrance and from the crumbling ceiling filled the air, the dust making it difficult to see. However, with or without the dust, it was clear that the place had been abandoned.

I holstered my weapon in defeat, realizing that we were too late, I had taken too much time to extract the information that we needed and now they had gotten away.

"This is certainly quite a difficult group to restrain," Loki spoke first, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Quiet, brother, we weren't to know that they had already evacuated," Thor snapped back as Natasha made her way over to one of the computers that remained.

"We can still try to get some intel from these. I doubt it would tell us where they're going, but perhaps we'll get more information on the enhanced," she spoke, about to hack the computer when I interrupted her.

"Wait! Don't touch that! Everyone needs to evacuate, the computers have to be boobytrapped, it's part of H.A.M.M.E.R.'s evacuation protocols. That way they can wipe out their pursuers without any actual confrontation."

"And if there's intel on those computers?" Steve asked, clearly wanting something good to come out of this mission.

I sighed, "it's unlikely, but I will check. Everyone else clear the area, I have no idea what they have in store for when I start trying to break in."

"(Y/N), you don't have to do this," Wanda spoke up, a concerned expression on her face. "We can stay and protect you."

"No, it's too dangerous, we have no idea what's going to happen. It should be me to do this, I did serve them for many years, it's only right."

Loki was the first to leave, not one to put his life on the line in a situation like this where it would be an unnecessary sacrifice. The other Avengers seemed uncertain, but made moves to leave as well, sending glanced over to Steve, hoping that he would reassure them that they were doing the right thing.

Tony shook his head, "(Y/N), you're not doing this. I'll take care of it, you leave with everyone else."

"But I-"

"Out of everyone here, who else is encased in an entire suit of titanium alloy and can hack into a secure server in his sleep? I'll be the most protected and am the most qualified to get the job done. Now everyone else get out of here," Tony demanded, already re-covering his head with his suit and turning to the nearest computer.

"Might I request that I join you? I doubt anything that couldn't harm you could harm me and I am equally as knowledgeable when it comes to technology," Vision suggested, flying over to Tony.

"Sure, Vis, just make sure that everyone gets out first."

Steve grabbed my arm and ushered me outside, not giving me the chance to argue that I should stay as well. We retreated to the Quinjet, where we had F.R.I.D.A.Y. pull up the live footage from Tony's suit so that we could see what was happening, although at a safe distance away. We were ready to spring into action and get the two out of there if they fell into danger, but as they started breaking into the computers nothing catastrophic happened.

"You sure those things were boobytrapped?" Bucky asked me as Tony and Vision continued to work without any disruptions.

I frowned, "I don't understand. H.A.M.M.E.R. would never be so stupid as to leave potential intel lying around unprotected."

"Perhaps they left in more of a hurry than you had expected."

"No, they wouldn't risk it. They would have at least blown the place up."

Tony and Vision returned a few minutes, Tony the one to share the disappointing news. "They wiped the hard drives clean. Like we-cannot-retrieve-any-data clean."

"So they didn't have it rigged to kill you because there was nothing that you could have found?" Wanda asked.

"Oh no, they had it set to kill us. It's just that my mask filters out poisonous gas and it didn't affect Vision either. Most of you would have died in there if you had stayed. Including you, (Y/N). So next time, don't volunteer to be the hero before thinking about who is best fit for the job."

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(A/N): So I've been working on a Loki fic and I'm still not sure if I like it enough to actually post. I was really happy with how the end of this book worked out and I can't seem to write as well in my Loki one maybe because there's less action and it's more romance based? Idk maybe that's the problem and I need to introduce another element. Ok I may have just worked out my problem in a rambling author's note because I didn't know what else to say and should probably delete this now but like I don't really feel like it. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!