ᴀ ʏᴇᴀʀ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ - ᴘᴇʀᴄʏ ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ x ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ ᴄʀᴏꜱꜱᴏᴠᴇʀ

[V] F I V E

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"Teenagers"
By My Chemical Romance

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If their tense shoulders and alert stares didn't show their anxiousness, the unusual silence did. Even their driver's cheery mood had soured and frozen as the car ride had progressed.

Within the moving limo, the Avengers sat in silence, staring at each other. The supple black leather seats were comfortable and high quality, yet their backs remained rigid.

Natasha had not thought of herself as claustrophobic before, but she felt as if she was choking. The ceiling was too low. There was not enough air. She needed to get outside. She wanted to be as far from the limousine and their mission as possible.

As she frantically rolled down her window, she received concerned glances. From the seat beside her, Clint cocked his head and looked as if he wanted to speak, but Natasha was too busy gulping down fresh air to notice.

As she gazed out of the window, Natasha cupped her cheek with her hand. The rushing air on her face calmed her rising anxiety well, but the view of the courtly street made her want to vomit. The houses were simply a blur of marbled white as they drove, but they were monstrous in size and most likely monstrous in price. 

She was no stranger to wealth - a billionaire sat in the limo alongside her - but the estates made her wonder if it was all a little excessive. The green lawns and hedges were cut and trimmed to perfection. The flowers that lined a porch looked too ideal and bright to be genuine.

If this was what a street in the area looked like, what about Winterbourne Private Academy?

That aggravating briefing with Nick Fury had been short but informative. Fury had given them their task, explained the risks they'd be forced to take, and Natasha had spent countless hours afterwards preparing. She had even gone as far as to assess the dangers - there weren't many, but one could never be too cautious, especially when the matter at hand was disappearances.

'Disappearances' was what the schools were calling them. "Kidnappings" was what Fury suspected- and rightly so. Was it really a coincidence that six students, three from each school, had vanished without a trace, all within the same month?

It was a mystery as to where the students had been taken, and so far, the police and detectives held no leads, motives, or primary suspects. Despite this, the Avengers had repetitively approached Fury and asked why the detectives couldn't have just dealt with it, but all their Director had said was that nothing was as it seemed.

This was why Natasha suspected that someone was working on the inside: there were students or teachers at Winterbourne and Goode High aiding the kidnappers. How else would they so flawlessly abduct six children without raising any suspicions? They had left no traces or clues behind, either. And with so little evidence, there wouldn't be much choice besides closing the case.

And Fury intended on doing something similar; smuggling camouflaged foxes into a chicken coup.

Thankfully enough, their Director hadn't specified a deadline. Natasha could only assume that when WInterbourne Private Academy and Goode High were deemed unsafe and forced to close, the Avengers would have failed their mission. Winterbourne Academy had looked like a pretty good option to start with - the school's wealth meant that they had higher security measures than Goode, and Natasha planned on using the surveillance cameras to her advantage.