Clear
London - November 6 - 7:43 AM
Prime Minister Pamela Lawton awaited the arrival of the American delegation in London at a military base. She had an ever so smug grin on her face as President Ritson’s advisors and even some cabinet members made their way down the stairs of Air Force One, Val and Rhodes among them. Ritson was the last person to leave the plane, he had a very sour look on his face as if it was clear he was being forced to do this.
“Colonel Rhodes! How wonderful it is see you again.” Lawton said with a little smile. Rhodes looked pissed as if he also did not want to be there.
“Prime Minister.” Rhodes said sternly and then walked right by her.
“Prime Minister Lawton, thank you for hosting us.” Ritson said like a child being forced to say thank you to an aunt who gave him socks for Christmas.
“Of course, Mr. President.” She said condescendingly as if she hadn’t insisted on the President engaging in these talks.
“The world is depending on successful talks between you and the Russians.” She added and Ritson glared at her.
“Pam, you and I both know, that’s a false flag attack and I am being forced here just so the Russians can get something out of this.” Ritson huffed loudly.
“Mr. President, over one thousand Russian civilians died. The only thing the Russians want is safety for their people.” She said with a smug British tone.
“We warned them, you warned them, they didn’t listen.” Ritson grumbled as he walked on with his security team. Ritson rolled his eyes as he walked away from that woman.
It was clear to the Prime Minister that everyone was in a terrible mood and her skrull portrayer could not have been more pleased.
In the cleared out hotel where the President and his delegation were staying, a secure conference room was set up for meetings of grave importance.
Ritson sat at the conference room table, clearly worked up.
“What the hell am I going to give the Russians for something we didn’t even do.” He asked angrily.
“Don’t give them a thing.” Rhodes said confidently.
“You know it doesn’t work like that. We warned them and now they are pretending that never happened and that we did this. Doesn’t help that they ‘lost’ the person who warned them.” Ritson groaned, that was a whole other nightmare.
“Director Weatherby has confirmed that Hill was last with some MI6 agents but still in Russia and she was in stable condition.” Val interjected although she could not get any more information than that.
“That’s really all the information we have?” Rhodes asked annoyed.
“And Fury?” Ritson questioned.
“No one has seen him.” Val added.
“He’s clearly in hiding for trying to murder Hill in broad fucking daylight.” Ritson growled. “Someone must be helping him.”
“He has lots of powerful friends.” Val mumbled.
“Well, until he tries to kill them.” Rhodes sighed.
“He seems as good as anyone to turn over to the Russians for blood.” Ritson said rather hatefully surprising the room.
“Uh.. Mr. President you are not seriously discussing giving the Russians an American citizen to blame for this bombing that we had nothing to do with.” Val asked. She didn’t like Fury but that seemed bad all around and everyone in the room agreed.
“No. I was just angry. I want him arrested, now. Why haven’t the Russians dropped this video and put out and Interpol alert on him?” Ritson asked still angry it had been two days!
“There has to be a reason they don’t want that footage out there.” Rhodes added.
“They probably don’t know what to make of it.” Ritson sighed, who did?
“No. They’re going to blindside you with it in the talks.” Val realized in the meeting.
“They are going to tie Fury to you. If you hint or suggest Hill warned them or that was how we got the intel for the warning, if they so much as think it came form an agent on the ground, they are going to show you the footage as proof that an American in the US Government was involved.” Val sighed in a frustrated tone. Of course that’s why Russia didn’t release the footage on Fury.
“I cannot go to these talks!” Ritson said in a harsh tone.
“You have to.” Rhodes said calmly.
“You know what’s coming so we can plan your response and reaction.” Val assured.
“Fire Fury.” Rhodes insisted.
“He is fired!” Ritson pointed out.
“No formally, officially write a letter announcing he is fired, and we’ll back date it?” Rhodes looked at. Val and Val nodded with confirmation.
“Yeah, we can work something up like that, some kind of official dismissal letter from a month ago or something. That way if they try to tie him to us we have proof he’s rogue.” Val started texting on her phone to get this worked out.
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Bromley, England - November 6 - 8:01 AM
In the morning, Fury woke up and started making breakfast. He cut up potatoes, tomatoes, started to scramble some eggs and put toast in the toaster.
Priscilla asked for Fury to make her breakfast, and in a way Talos did ask him for breakfast a few days ago.
Talos joined Fury in the kitchen.
“I always thought this was the nicest kitchen.” Talos said admiring it.
“‘Scilla likes all the light it gets.” Fury said as he scrambled the eggs in the frying pan.
“Did you start any coffee?” Talos looked around and Fury paused, he had not.
“Do you think this is for you?” Fury questioned with a high pitch voice.
“Oh, I think you’ll be making me breakfast for a long ass time.” Talos said with a cheeky grin as he started to get the coffee going.
“Oh, really?” Fury asked giving Talos some side eye and Talos came over to the stove and saw the to the potatoes and tomatoes cooking in a pan and he grabbed a mostly cooked potato from it and popped it in his mouth.
“Salt and pepper, mate, c’mon.” Talos criticized. Fury took a long slow drawl of a sigh and stared at him.
Fury set the table with the breakfast he cooked. The table had food displayed on bright blue dishes. Fury poured orange juice in a tall glass, and he set a mug of coffee next to it. He even put the silverware down.
“Who knew you could make a nice meal? Maybe add a flower?” Talos asked as he watched his work and Fury shrugged.
Priscilla had not come downstairs yet. Pricilla was up in her bathroom, she was actually setting up a tracking device to put on Fury’s car before he left. She knew she couldn’t stop him from leaving but she could find where he was. As she set it up she noticed a little drop of water fall onto her hand, and then another and she suddenly realized she was crying. She took some time to regain herself. She could smell breakfast cooking. Fury was really doing it? She couldn’t believe it. She put a dark green fuzzy robe on over her pajamas and she put the tracking device in her pocket.
Priscilla walked down the stairs of her home to the smell of a breakfast she didn’t make and she waltzed into the kitchen putting on a fake smile ready to see Fury face to face again.
“Did you make this for me?” She asked to an empty room.
Priscilla looked around. Everything was still and quiet like a ghost had prepared her breakfast. She looked in the living room, the bathroom, the extra rooms and there wasn’t a soul in her house. Then she looked to the window to the driveway and she saw Fury’s car was gone. Priscilla sighed. Just like that, once again, Fury was gone before he was ever really here.
As Fury and Talos drove off they knew they were in trouble. Varra being turned by the resistance was not on Fury’s radar. Fury used to be a man who knew everything, but he realized him being off world for such a long time meant he didn’t even know the people he thought he’d always know. As it turned out, those people didn’t know themselves either.
Fury and Talos were quiet and then Fury looked over at Talos riding in the passenger seat.
“I’ve made quite a mess, huh?” Fury asked him.
“You didn’t do it by yourself.” Talos mumbled.
“Yeah, you helped.” Fury joked lightly and Talos raised his brows to himself.
“But doesn't it..." Fury started, if Varra turned to the resistance it made no sense why Talos wouldn't turn to it too.
“I’m not with Gravik because I’m with you.” Talos said confidently and Fury stared at him.
“But, why? You know your people deserve a home and you know I made a promise I couldn’t deliver. I used you, I used your friends, your family for myself, you told me to my face.”
“You did wrong, but that wasn’t the intention. I always believed you and I still have faith in you.”
“Maybe that belief is misplaced.” Fury argued against himself.
“Nah. I know it’s not.”
“You don’t think working with me is pointless, wouldn’t you have more success helping Gravik?"
“You don’t trust me?” Talos asked surprised.
“I’ll trust you until my last day breathing.” Fury admitted sincerely and Talos paused.
“I’m with you because I want to be with you.” Talos verbalized his earlier feelings and Fury looked at him as they sat in the car.
“I know it’s cliche, but I want to lead by example, I want to show my people that good triumphs over evil even if it’s hard, even if it takes a long time. If Gravik wins, he’ll send the last generation of skrulls into delusion. He’ll make them fight battles they cannot win until there isn’t one of us left and the skrulls will go out as if we never existed at all. Gravik wouldn’t even blink an eye.”
Fury and Talos exchanged promising glances like their friendship was rebounding. This gave Fury some relief as his relationships with the people he was closest with all seemed to be unraveling before his eyes. But as Fury thought about why that was happening, he realized it was him. Maria didn’t stop contacting him because she lost faith in him, he stopped answering her because he lost faith in himself. Talos wasn’t the one who wavered and balked at their friendship of three decades on the train after things went awry, Fury did that. Varra didn’t leave Fury and go join Gravik, Fury left Varra and she turned to the only other people who understood her in the world. It was all his fault. Everything Sonya, Maria, Talos, and Varra said to Fury was true and right and everyone was desperate for him to go back to the way he was before. But it was just like that crusty old Russian man said to him at the bar when he was with Maria, he’d ‘never be the man he once was…’ but that didn’t have to be a bad thing, did it?
Fury took a deep breath as he knew he had a lot of cleaning up to do. Fury and Talos knew the American delegation was landing in London soon and they hedged their bets that Gravik would be targeting them especially since they knew Rhodes was really a skrull. This was like keeping a constant GPS tracker on Ritson. Gravik might set traps but once Fury and Talos peeled back what he was really doing, it really seemed more like he jumped at opportunity and he lacked concrete plans. In contrast, Fury and Talos knew how to plan and they could out scheme this kid if they could make choices that were smart. Fury did have one way to lure Gravik out for sure, he could go get the harvest, but what exactly was Gravik going to do with it?
As Fury felt confident his relationship with Talos was on the mend, he knew he couldn’t convince Priscilla to change her mind, and he couldn’t yet do anything about Maria, he did know one person he needed to try again with and that was Sonya.
As Talos and Fury drove around the city, Fury repeatedly called Sonya at every number he had for her, her office line went to voicemail, her work cell did too. Her private lines were ‘disconnected.’ This gave Fury pause. Was Sonya hiding? Was she not answering calls from him? He had to admit being ignored when you needed someone did not feel great. He did not think it was wise to show up at Sonya’s work, but he did know of one place he might find Sonya… in her recently rebuilt flat. Fury knew this was a risky gamble but it was early in the morning, the work day had not started yet so maybe he would catch her.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
In the bustling chaos at the Helsinki airport skrull operatives disguised themselves to blend in seamlessly with the crowd based on the directives from Gravik and Weatherby. Some skrulls were dressed as flight attendants, others as travelers, some as airport security checking passports, and one skrull took over as the head of airport security, a Mr. Koskinen. There was no way Maria Hill was escaping this airport and getting on a flight to London. Koskinen’s portrayer was not above shutting the whole airport down if he needed to. They knew how long it took someone to get from the Russian border to Helsinki and the skrulls were confident that they beat her to the airport, especially with the delay their first convoy caused her.
After the long drive, Hari parked his car in a quiet area of an employees parking lot. Maria and Hari had a relatively quiet ride, not at all the back and forth like she had with Oslo, but Maria was struck with a great deal of guilt over what happened to Oslo. Hari could tell, he knew that feeling of fault as he had similar feelings when people got hurt.
“What now?” Maria asked.
“We’re waiting for someone.” Hari said.
“I don’t have a passport.” Maria pointed out.
“What do you think we’re waiting for.” Hari laughed a bit.
“We do this for a living, we know how to get people out.” Hari assured.
It was tough for Maria to not be the person making the plans and figuring this stuff out for herself or others. It was a great deal of trust she was putting in people she did not know at all. Yet, they still were coming through for her and she had to ask herself, why? Then she realized there were tons of people that she had come through for for years despite barely knowing them at all. Maybe it was what Hari said, ‘this is what they do for a living’ or maybe it was really for Sonya.
There was a light knock on the back of the car window. Hari unlocked the doors and a man got in the back seat. It was Rick Mason, an international smuggler of all kinds of things including people who described himself as an independent contractor.
“What’s up, guys?” Rick said casually and cool as he slid into the backseat of the car.
“Rick Mason!?” Maria asked stunned, she never thought she’d see him again. Maria had met him once before when SHIELD hired him to help in a mission she remembered he was quite expensive and he was paid in weapons and cash. She also knew that he had previously helped Natasha before. If Natasha could trust him then Maria figured she probably could too. Maria genuinely doubted that Rick Mason was on the skrulls replacement list.
“How you doing, Hill?” Rick asked he was just as surprised to see her too.
“Uh, okay.” Maria looked at Rick and then back at Hari.
“Did you ever think you’d see me again?” Rick asked.
“Not since I lost that SHIELD budget.” Maria sighed.
“I don’t know, I think that Stark budget you had was pretty good too.” Rick joked and Maria laughed.
“Do you have a passport for me?” Maria asked.
“No.” Rick said plainly and Maria looked a little grim at that news.
“I got you something better.” Rick said as he handed Maria a backpack. Maria opened it expecting something like a photostatic veil or anything high tech and useful for her to get out of this airport and when she opened the bag and saw what was inside she looked up for a minute and then she turned her head and looked back at Rick.
“An airport security uniform?” She asked very surprised.
“Yeah! And a working badge with your face on it so you can go anywhere in the airport with a gun.” Rick announced as he thought his idea was pretty good.
“Okay, but what about my face?” Maria asked.
“I mean, that’s the face your mother gave you and it’s a very fine face.” Rick said and Hari laughed under his breath.
“Uhhhhm… okay.” Maria sighed.
“What about these?” She said holding up her heavily bandaged hands.
“Well, those hands are less fine.” Rick said as he observed them agreeing they could pose a problem and then he reached in his back pocket and pulled out a pair of leather gloves.
“Problem solved.” Rick smiled and Maria took the gloves from him.
Maria started to pull her shirt off.
“What— what are you doing?” Hari asked.
“Getting dressed.” Maria didn’t even look up at Hari as she pulled off her torn and dirty flannel.
“Uh… we can give you some privacy…” Hari offered.
“How? We’re in a parking lot…” Maria quipped back and Rick laughed. Hari averted his eyes to give Maria the element of privacy.
“I need a map of the airport.” Maria stated matter of factly.
“I got you covered.” Rick said as he took out a tablet and displayed a map of the airport. Maria got dressed in the car awkwardly as Hari avoided looking at her. Maria looked over the map as she dressed herself leaning toward the back of the car and she did struggle to move her body easily enough to be able to get dressed in the passenger seat but she hustled through the pain.
Rick started to explain the map to her.
“We’re here.” He pointed to the employees parking lot, “the jet we’re leaving from we’ll get to it by sneaking through the tarmac connected to Terminal F. You can cut through this employees area to skip the crowd.” He circled the area where Maria could save some time. “When you go in scan your ID, it will clear you as Minna Aino.” That was the name it said on Maria’s ID badge.
“All you have to do is walk from this employees entrance from the parking lot to the security gate for Terminal F. Use your backpack and if anyone stops you, just say you’re on the way to lost and found it’s near that terminal. Bring it to gate F28. Then we’ll go through a secure area and leave when cleared.” Rick shrugged, it was a relatively simple plan but it could be executed flawlessly without raising any concerns.
“Okay, and what if someone says something to me in Finnish or Swedish?” Maria asked.
“Just say something back to them in English and they will start speaking English.” Hari assured still looking out the window away from Maria.
“How’s your Finnish accent?” Rick asked.
“I don’t know.” Maria answered attempting the accent, it wasn’t terrible but not the best. Maria looked over at Hari who was still averting his gaze from Maria.
“I’m fully clothed now…” Maria added with her accent.
“Oh! Okay.” Hari shyly turned his gaze to straight ahead of him and Maria and Rick laughed little.
Maria put her gloves on.
“Don’t forget your hat.” Rick said and Maria looked in the bag where she had just stuffed her dirty clothes and she pulled out a baseball cap that said ‘SECURITY’ in Finnish. She pulled it over her head and she was grateful for it as it covered up the cut on her hairline and helped hide her face a bit.
Maria attached the gun to her belt, this was a better plan than she gave it credit for at first. In fact, it was almost the same plan she had made for herself back at the Russian hospital. It started to dawn on Maria that all this time pretending to be people she wasn’t was not that different than what the skrulls were doing.
The skrull plants throughout the Helsinki airport were vigilant watching for Maria. They closed down most security lines at the orders of Koskinen. Every person scanning a passport was now a skrull and they could watch for anything. There were also baggage workers hiding as skrulls checking the areas and others watching at arrivals, some were watching on video surveillance in the security office. There was no where that was unmonitored by the skrull team.
The long lines at security were making people angry, and the regular security workers did not understand why this was happening. Koskinen explained that there was a security threat and everything had to be checked extra carefully.
“Ready?” Rick said to Maria and Maria nodded. Rick got out of the car and then he left he had to go into the airport a different way than her.
“Thanks for your help.” Maria looked at Hari.
“Just doing my job.” Hari said casually.
“I really hope Oslo is …” Maria started and Hari shook his head no at her not to go down that road of guilt.
“That man jumped out of a building once and walked away with a broken finger. So, don’t think he did anything he wasn’t going to do just because you were there, you know what I mean? He’s smart, you’re smart, you protected and saved yourselves and he’s going to be fine.” Hari assured motioning to Maria to leave. Maria nodded in agreement and she sighed a little anxiously. This was going to be easy, right? Just walk through the airport with a gun no less.
Maria got out of the car and she walked over to one of the employee entrances. She had the map of the airport engraved in her mind. Maria followed another security worker into the airport and she watched him scan his ID and then she did the same. She was able to enter. She carried her backpack on her back and so far she wasn’t swarmed by skrulls or security.
Was this really all she had to do? Walk across the airport to the F28 gate unnoticed? Maria looked around the airport casually she observed it was very busy. Maria was just going to blend in, take a note from all the skrulls doing this and get by unnoticed.
Maria tried to act confident as she walked she heard an announcement and Finnish over the intercom and people suddenly started to look around on heightened alert. Maria didn’t know what the message said but she kept going, acting like she was on a mission. As she made it to the security area she was meant to cut through there were orange cones blocking her easy passage. Maria figured she’d walk around them.
“No no! Stop, use the other way! We have to fix something.” A maintenance worker said to Maria in English with a heavy Finnish accent.
“Sorry!” Maria said as she turned around. She was going to have to go the long way. Maria sighed and she navigated through the crowds of busy and annoyed travelers.
Then she saw someone point in her direction. Maria did not pause, but she looked down at the gun on her side and then a crowd of people looked over right at Maria. Maria didn’t know what was happening, suddenly a group of people were moving right toward her. Were they all skrulls? What the hell was this! Had her face been released on the news or something?
Then Maria looked to the side of her and she noticed a very tall man was walking through the airport. There were cameras following him flashing taking photos. He had sunglasses on but was wearing casual clothes. People started taking out their phones to take photos of him. Maria hung her head down under her hat not to get seen and she moved out of the way as the paparazzi and crowds started to ascend on this apparent celebrity moving through the airport. Maria should have assumed something like this, of course skrulls wouldn’t just point at her and gather upon her, but her paranoia was so high she could not think straight sometimes even when doing this simple little walk.
Maria recalled the map of the airport in her mind. She casually noted the signs leading her to Terminal F. She just had to keep going through unnoticed. There were numerous flight delays popping up on screens around the airport. People were yelling at each other, some people were rushing around very swiftly. She couldn’t have left from a jet in a private field or something? This was so obnoxious.
“Anteeski! Anteeski! Hello! hey! hey!” (Excuse me! Excuse me!)
A short blonde man with a rolling suitcase called to Maria, waving his arms at her as she was walking by Terminal B. Maria stopped. She felt her heart stop for a moment. Could walking through the airport really be this anxiety inducing? Maria had fought hydra in the back of a van, and held of Loki’s army over a bridge, survived being shot at close range after surviving a bombing and then a car chase and firefight but … walking through the airport was getting to her?
Any time a person looked at her she thought they were a skrull in disguise. Maria wanted to ignore this man vying for her attention. But when she looked at his face was exuding concern.
“Yes?” She asked him in a curt tone, trying to act the way a security agent in the airport would when being approached.
"Löysin oudon lauku!” The man said. (I found a strange bag)
Maria looked at him puzzled and the man then pointed to a row of seats where a brown leather messenger bag was laying underneath the bench. A lone bag sitting on the floor in the terminal gate with nobody in it. Maria paused and from the context clues of the situation she figured what he was saying and she could put it together.
“When did you first notice it?” She asked in English.
“It’s been like five or six minutes. Someone has left a bag alone, a bag, left alone in the airport for six minutes! I noticed it right when the announcement came on the intercom ‘if you see something, say something, be vigilant’” He said urgently repeating the announcement Maria didn’t understand. Maria tried not to grimace, but the safety idealist in her knew she should probably alert someone to the bag. She really didn’t have time for that though. But people were on such high alert with the terrorist attacks going on so frequently and one right across the border in Russia just the other day.
She looked over at the bag on the floor, it was such a casual looking bag, it just looked like someone forgot it when they left for their flight. As if the bag had slipped between the sides of the seats in the gate. But she hesitated because she knew the skrulls were clever and loved tricks. This could be a trick, right? How could something so simple like picking up a lost bag at the airport rile her up this much? This bag though it did already make it through security, so it was probably okay.
“I’ll take care of it.” Maria paused and then she started to walk over toward the bag.
“What if it is a b-o-m-b?” The traveler spelled out like he was afraid to say the word. There were so many acts of terrorism lately, everyone was on edge about this stuff, especially after what just happened. Finland and Russia did share a border after all. He was stunned this security agent just walked right over to it.
“I don’t think so.” She said but she really didn’t know. She took a leap of faith and she pulled the bag from under the chair and lifted it up the flap of the brown messenger bag that had slid through the side of the seats at the gate. Maria started to look through it. She knew she was on the clock here, but someone could have tried to leave a bomb or something dangerous. As she thought about it, it was an empty gate so this wouldn’t be the ideal spot for something like that.
As she went through the bag she could tell it was someone’s missing bag. It had traveling items, a new tooth brush, mouth wash, soap, men’s deodorant, some folded men’s clothes, it even had a book of sudoku puzzles and a mechanical pencil. It also had a personal planner, an iPhone charger, some sleeping medication, Advil, and some headphones. It was just someone’s lost carry-on bag. Maria was relieved.
“It’s okay, someone just forgot it.” She said to the alert and anxious traveler. Maria looked over at the gate but no one was working there. So, she was going to have to take it with her. She thought about leaving it but if someone was watching the cameras they would see she checked it and left it, bringing more suspicion onto herself. So, Maria carried it with her, she was supposed to he pretending she was delivering a bag to the lost and found and so she was going to continue to do the same thing with an actual lost bag. She was definitely going to swipe that toothbrush.
As the skrulls anticipated running into Maria a number of them had stopped women who were a similar height to her but they had not yet found her. One skrull pretending to be a passenger noticed a tall woman with brown hair from behind who appeared to be a security officer in the airport. The skrull started to follow her. Then it dawned on him that Maria probably was savvy enough to try something like this. The skrull who was walking behind her sped up, then he started to walk parallel to her. He had her, this had to be her.
“Rouva, voitteko auttaa minua?” The skrull asked her. (Ma’am can you help me?)
"Kyllä, herra, voin auttaa sinua.” She responded in a soft delightful tone. (Yes sir, I can help you).
“Oh, uh, no I’m all set, sorry!” The skrull apologized as he saw the woman’s face she was just some random security worker. He sighed to himself. The skrull looked over toward an empty waiting area in gate B as he made his way through the terminals searching for Maria. He was waiting near any commercial flights that were taking off to London. The skrulls were growing frustrated and the many people who were diverted to the extra security checks were highly irritated, it seemed like mass frustration was going to overload the airport. What did they do? Stuff this woman in a suitcase? Oh wait, they were checking those too! There was truly no way for her to evade this many skrull operatives.
Maria checked the time as she only had a few minutes to get to the gate she was supposed to but she didn’t want to walk rushed and be noticed. She hustled a tiny bit faster as she finally made it to the area marked with F. She looked for the number 28. She still had a ways to go. As she looked around the busy airport she finally found her gate but she was surprised to see people there and some of them were boarding. It made her uneasy, like she had messed up. Had the gate changed?
The flight attendant at the desk looked at Maria as she stood there thinking for a minute.
“Voinko auttaa sinua?” He asked. (Can I help you?)
“Someone who boarded this plane lost this bag.” Maria explained in her best Finnish accent.
“Oh! I can take it on.” He responded.
“No. I have to because of the heightened security and then I can help it be checked.” Maria made something up.
“Oh, okay. Head through the hall and once you reunite with the owner you can ask Sam, he’ll take the bag downstairs to be checked.” He said kindly. Everyone in Finland seemed so nice all the time. Maria thought that was a stereotype but so far everyone was much more chill than Americans or Russians.
Maria hoped she was doing the right thing. She went down the hall to the plane, a commercial, flight but before she got to the doorway she was stopped by Rick.
“You need that bag checked?” He asked.
“Yes.” Maria answered and then Rick opened the tunnel door and the two of them went down the stairs from the tunnel that connected the commercial flight to the gate. Rick was wearing a bright yellow vest, but despite how much it made him stand out, because they were entering the tarmac he blended in with everyone and so did Maria.
Rick acted like he was creating a tag for the bag but then he started to walk away and he gestured for Maria to follow. The two of them then crossed through where all the luggage was unloaded onto carts. A very industrial looking area. It was insanely loud and it hurt Maria’s ears. People were rushing all over the place tossing bags and carting around.
As they walked through unnoticed looking like everyone else doing their job at the chaotic airport they crossed to another side of the airport without gates or checks or security through this underground baggage depot. They crossed over into the private jet terminal section of the airport. Maria followed Rick still acting like security as the two of them went to his jet.
“How’s that for a way to London?” Rick asked with a smirk.
“Ask me again when it gets off the ground.” Maria sighed. Rick pulled off his vest and tossed it in a trash as he walked over to his jet. He climbed up the stairs and he checked to make sure it was as empty as he left it when he parked it waiting for her. Then he motioned for Maria to climb up. Maria did so, thinking to herself that this was a moment of truth. Were skrulls waiting for her inside? As she climbed up inside she looked into the interior of the jet and it was empty. She sighed from relief to herself as she made her way into the jet.
“Do you have more things than I remember?” Rick asked eyeing Maria who now had a messenger bag and a backpack.
“I found a lost bag.” Maria explained.
“So.. you took it?” Rick asked cocking his head to the side.
“Yeah, a traveler was concerned it was planted, but I checked it and it was fine, and then I kept it because it has a toothbrush and I have not brushed my teeth in a longer time than I want to admit to anyone.” Maria grimaced.
“I…” Rick paused.
“I mean, I could have got you a toothbrush… you just had to let me know.” The man was a renowned international smuggler after all.
“Nobody asked me what I needed.”
“So you’re going to use some random person’s toothbrush?” Rick looked at Maria stunned.
“No! It’s new!” Maria made a face and Rick pressed his lips together.
“How do you know?” Rick was making such a face at her.
“It’s in the package!”
“… oh…” Rick paused.
“Oh, okay, yeah that makes sense. That’s less weird.” Rick nodded.
“Okay, noted from my next gig, bring a new toothbrush.” Rick said to himself.
“Feel free to go brush your teeth while I get us prepared for take off.” Rick suggested and Maria rolled her eyes, but then she took the bag and did just that. She went toward the bathroom in the back of the jet. It was strange as the jet started to move, driving on the tarmac. This had gone bizarrely smoothly and Maria was kind of worried. She knew something was going to happen really soon. She did not believe this jet was getting in the air and if it did, it probably wouldn’t land.
In the bathroom, Maria took off her security shirt and pants and then she opened her backpack that had her old clothes in it from the accident. Her clothes were gross and rough. Blood stained, glass pieces fell off them still as she pulled her clothes out of the bag. And they didn’t smell great, kind of like smoke. She looked through the clothes this man packed, boxers socks, gym shorts, a t-shirt for a sports team Maria guessed, and she found a bright blue hoodie, that had white letters in English going down the left side that said FINLAND and above it had the men’s football team crest. Maria pulled the hoodie on over her dirty warn out clothes, it was huge on her. This man had to hav been like six feet tall.
Maria was relieved to change though as she knew she couldn’t make it out of the London airport looking like a Finnish security worker. Finally she was dressed and she opened the brand new toothbrush and the box of toothpaste she found in this man’s bag and she finally brushed her teeth in the bathroom sink. She couldn’t have been happier for that moment. Doing this small normal thing for a moment made her feel more grounded, despite the craziness that had ensued. It gave her hope that she wasn’t going to be on the run forever, like she was just a few hours away from something normal again.
As Maria left the bathroom she pulled her brown boots on her feet. Then she walked up the plane to where Rick was. The plane was waiting on a runway getting ready for take off.
“Well… that’s a look.” Rick said with a laugh when Maria showed up, seeing her swimming in this bright blue sweatshirt. She couldn’t help but laugh too.
“You couldn’t have grabbed me jeans and a sweatshirt?” Maria asked.
“Next time, I’ll remember a toothbrush and clean clothes. I’ll tack it on as a premium luxury service.” He joked and Maria nodded as that would be a pretty good idea and then Maria tilted her head thinking for a minute.
“Hey, who is paying for this?” Maria asked.
“I was told to bill Fury directly.” Rick said giving Maria a glance to make sure that was right and Maria nodded.
“Yep, that’s right.” She confirmed and nodded again. When Rick looked away she raised her brows to herself.
“We’re ready for take off to London.” Rick called into the control tower.
The overwhelming frustration at the airport mounted among skrulls and travelers alike. Koskinen could not keep the security lines this slow anymore. Skrulls checked any and all commercial flights headed to London and the numerous flights that were going to airports that had potential connecting flights to London. Still Maria had not turned up. Koskinen was in the security office with other officers. He knew Maria had to be hiding in plain sight, they just weren’t looking in the right places.
“Let’s check all the non-commercial flights too.” Koskinen said to the security agents.
“We don’t have any other flights from Helsinki going to London until tomorrow.”
“We had two commercial flights to London this morning and we’re holding the last one at your command, we don’t have any non-commercial flights requesting to go to London.”
Koskinen huffed. What was going on? They must be changing the flight location in the air or something. It had to be that. Koskinen groaned loudly.
“This is tower 1, we just got a request from the private jet terminal, a change request from Dublin to London.” A voice called over the radio to Koskinen.
“It’s destination was Dublin and it is now requesting a change to London?” Koskinen asked back into the radio.
“Yes.” The voice confirmed.
“Hold that flight!” Koskinen said back.
The disguised skrull smirked to himself, that was the one. He got her. They were playing sly but Sonya and Hill were no match for the skrulls.
“Permission for take off?” Rick asked over his jet radio to the command tower.
“You need to hold.” The tower command responded to Rick. Maria and Rick looked at each other.
“That’s the flight.” Koskinen said confidently to the security officers.
“Do not let that jet take off!” Koskinen ordered again. “What’s the private jet number, what runway?” Koskinen waited until the tower answered him where the jet was. Koskinen then ran out the door and he called for help with some other skrull operatives, the five of them ran through the airport swiftly as they made their way to the runway.
Maria and Mason waited in what felt like a long dreadful silence.
“Are we clear?” Mason asked again after a long pause.
“Not clear, please hold.” The command said back.
Maria sighed loudly and she bit her bottom lip. Of course this wouldn’t just work. Everything had gone so smoothly up until now.
“C’mon Hill, grab me a gun.” Rick said gesturing to a cabinet in the wall of the jet. She opened the cabinet to reveal Mason’s cache of stored weapons.
“Are you an arms dealer too?” Maria asked shocked.
“Nah, I’m just prepared.”
Maria and Rick each took a gun and loaded them as they anticipated a conflict.
The skrull operatives drove in tarmac security cars racing down the private jet tarmac toward the jet they knew Maria was on. The cars surrounded the jet.
Koskinen called into the radio to the private jet pilot.
“Open your door! Let us in, now!” He demanded.
The door to the jet did not open.
“We will force it open!” He yelled into the radio again.
Maria and Rick looked at each other as they each held their gun at the ready. They both sighed.
After a brief pause the jet door finally opened with a stair case unfolding. Koskinen and two other skrulls ran up the stairs of the jet forcefully, the anticipation was killing them. They had been trying to find Maria for so long. The burst into the jet almost joyously with their guns out as they turned their guns into the interior of the jet, and one skrull turned his gun on the cockpit.
“Hands up! Don’t try anything, it’ over!” Koskinen said loudly and smugly and then he paused a he looked at the two people in the jet.
It wasn’t Maria, instead there were two older white wealthy men siting in the private jet chairs, drinking champagne and smoking cigars. They paused and put their hands up quickly when they saw security with guns.
“What the hell is this? Did you set me up Cosco?” One of the men said angrily to the other.
“Whoa whoa whoa, set you up? No! Guys, it’s just a little tax fraud, we don’t need the guns. I’ll go back to my house. I didn’t realize when the judge said don’t leave Finland it meant I couldn’t run out for a little game of golf in London. Just a quick little Helsinki to London trip, that’s all.” The other rich man shrugged. Was it really that big of a deal, he was probably going to come back.
“What!” Koskinen yelled.
“Who else is on this flight!!” Koskinen yelled.
“The pilot…”
Koskinen looked over to the cockpit to see another tall white man with hands up.
“Are you harboring anyone!?” Koskinen yelled.
“No! Just some cigars and whiskey…” one of the rich men answered.
“Search the jet!” Koskinen yelled and the skrulls looked around the jet for Maria hiding among them, but the wasn’t there.
Maria and Rick waited to hear back from the tower. Nothing was happening but they were both on edge. Rick grit his teeth as he thought the wait was unusual. They exchanged a glance of slight panic mixed with annoyance.
“Are we clear?” Rick asked again to the tower as the longer the two of them waited the more likely they knew they were caught.
“Okay, you’re cleared for take off. Sorry for the wait.” the voice for the tower confirmed to Rick.
“Roger that.” Rick said and Maria and Rick nodded at each other and Rick started to drive the jet forward about to take off.
“Tampere to London, here we go.” Rick smirked as the jet moved down the runway picking up speed, faster and faster until it shot upward over the Tampere airport.
Maria sighed a bit relieved although she still worried her flight wouldn’t make it there. At least, Maria understood Sonya’s message perfectly, there was ‘no second flight.’ Maria knew this meant she should keep going to Tampere. So while the skrulls hunted for her in Helsinki hours away in a different city at a different airport she was full speed ahead to London. She just had to hope this jet made it there and help reveal this skrull plot before it was too late.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
London, England - November 6 - 8:56 AM
With Weatherby being a skrull and wanting to take over the Hill extraction, Sonya decided she would go pick up Maria herself before anyone else discovered she made it back to London. Sonya hoped her Helsinki trick threw the skrulls off long enough and Sonya was pleased to get a confirmation from Rick and Maria in the air. Sonya knew she had to be fast with picking Maria up undetected as she also had to chase down the Daltons. She could not get sidetracked. Sonya had started working out of her flat to keep Weatherby off her trail for a little while but she figured she would not be able to work out of here very long before someone was sent after her.
She grabbed a light brown shoulder bag and she started grabbing some clothes from her drawers. She knew they wouldn’t fit Maria great but they were better than nothing, she was going to need clean clothes. Maria and Sonya din’t really have the same style or anything Sonya had very expensive tastes. Sonya tried to think about what be functional and useful for Maria. Maria and Sonya were about the same height but Maria was more slender than her. Sonya guessed that they probably had a similar shoe size because they were so close in height, so Sonya grabbed a brand new pair of trainers that had been sitting in the box in Sonya’s closet for over a year. Sonya had to grab clothes for herself as well as she knew she could not stay in her flat anymore once Weatherby discovered that she had tricked him with the flight.
Sonya remembered her old days back in the field and how miserable it was to be on the run like Maria was. Being hunted and hurt and not having any communication or anything that was your own. It was stressful and complicated. Sonya grabbed some basic toiletries to bring for herself and Maria. Sonya knew these things she knew would feel like luxuries to Maria when she returned.
Sonya grabbed her bag of things and rushed downstairs. She quickly opened her front door and then she froze as she saw the figure of Nick Fury standing at her door getting ready to knock and another man standing a few steps behind Fury on the stairs leading to her front step.
“Oh, I don’t think so!” Sonya said as she swiftly grabbed her gun aiming it at Fury.
“Sonya! Sonya!” Fury exclaimed in shock that she was pulling a gun on him.
“Hands up before I knock your skrull brains out all over my front steps.” Sonya threatened.
Fury put his hands up immediately as did Talos.
“I’m not a skrull!” Fury defended himself.
“Well, I have plenty of fun ways to find that out for sure.” Sonya casually threatened.
“Sonya, it’s me, Fury.”
“Yeah? And who is this then, and why are you standing outside my flat like a bunch of idiots?”
“This is Talos, he’s a skrull and friend of mine for three decades.”
“Hello…” Talos said his hands still up.
Sonya didn’t want anyone to see this exchange so she looked at the two idiot men who showed up at her flat, they were either skrulls there to kill her or Fury really was this stupid.
“Put both your hands on your heads and come inside now.” Sonya ordered and both the men complied. Sonya put her bag down and she herded them to her kitchen with her gun and she made them both sit in chairs near her dining room table but far apart.
“If you so much as flinch in a way that seems threatening I am going to shoot.” She wasn’t messing around.
“Sonya, I’ve been trying to reach out and you aren’t picking up.” Fury said.
“Yeah, it sucks when someone isn’t answering your calls, huh?” Sonya snarked.
“We’re trying to fight Gravik and we’re running out of options and time.” He added.
“You’re not doing anything to fight Gravik if you are showing up on my doorstep.” Sonya said curtly.
“Sonya! I am not a skrull, but I’m out of options and influence I can’t rely on my old networks, I need to work with you. I can help. I told you this, I know skrulls. Talos knows skrulls. We can help.” Fury pleaded.
“Really? So you and not a skrull shot Maria Hill and left her to die in Moscow?” Sonya asked.
“Gravik did that! He pretended to be me, he tricked us and Maria paid the price.” Fury explained.
“So there were two Fury’s in Moscow?” Sonya asked.
“Yes!”
“And one of them shot Hill and the other one just left her?” Sonya said angrily. The circumstances of this were all too fishy for Sonya.
Real Fury would never do that, would he? Maria was Fury’s number one person, he should be the one getting her out of Moscow not leaving it to whoever happened to be around to help. What if no one had been able to Maria? What would have happened to her while Fury bumbled around aimlessly? As Sonya thought about it, this was way too suspicious especially with the American delegation about to arrive and Sonya getting a lead on the Daltons and Maria coming in soon.
“We tried to find her, it was chaos, we could not find her we could not reach her, we had to go. I thought she was okay I saw her running with someone after the blast.” Talos started to explain.
“I wasn’t asking you.” Sonya looked at Talos annoyed.
“So, which Fury bugged my office, then?” Sonya asked
“I did. Me, the real one, I did that.”
“I don’t know… I think a skrull has been spying on me for quite some time.”
“Yes, probably they have, but not through what I planted. I left a bug on your owl when you kidnapped me and brought me to your office because you didn’t share the intel that I needed.” Fury admitted.
“When you were up looking at the clocks? You didn’t know I wasn’t going to share the intel then. You hadn’t asked.” Sonya pointed out the flaw in Fury’s argument.
“I knew you weren’t going to give me anything and I thought you might be a skrull. It had more than one purpose.” Fury added.
“Well, I suppose the real Fury is bold enough and stupid enough to do something like that.” Sonya rolled her eyes.
“I’ll say.” Talos agreed.
“Enough from you.” Sonya said coldly.
“Unfortunately boys, I do not have time for your little charade any longer.” Sonya said cocking one of her guns.
“Sonya!” Fury said alarmed.
“Sonya, Gravik sent me a video of ‘me’ shooting Maria, he told me Maria lived and that he was going to finish the job if I didn’t bring something he wanted.” Fury started to explain.
Sonya looked at Fury curiously.
“He did, he sent it to me when I was on a train from Moscow to Warsaw. When I watched the video I was pretty sure that Maria was wearing a vest and she did live but might be hurt. He’ waiting for me to call him so I bring him what he wants.” Fury added.
“And what exactly does Gravik want you to bring him?” Sonya asked losing patience with this game.
“DNA from Carol Danvers and other Avengers.” Fury admitted and Sonya paused as she thought about it. The Daltons were trying to make a machine to make the skrulls stronger, Avenger DNA sure would help. This must be why Gravik wasn’t afraid of the Avengers coming back to stop him.
“And why would Gravik think that the real Fury had or stored DNA samples of Avengers?”
Fury was quiet and then he looked directly at Sonya. Talos looked at Fury with wide eyes glaring at him stunned.
“Oh my god, mate.” Talos grumbled as he realized what Fury’s silence meant.
“Oh my god is right.” Sonya sighed and she lowered her gun down.
“You must be the real Fury because only a human man would be that stupid.” Sonya sighed. This must be what the Daltons were doing, building a machine to use the Avenger DNA that Fury had saved. If Gravik got it he could use on the skrulls to make them all powerful.
“Alright, C’mon. I was trying to keep the world safe.” Fury said as if saving Avenger DNA was not the worst idea he ever had.
“How would Gravik know that you have Avenger DNA?” Sonya asked as the two men still did not lower their hands from their heads.
“He was the one who helped collect it.” Fury said as he slowly started to move his hands down but Talos kept his up.
“So why wouldn’t he just steal it then?” She asked perplexed.
“You know, I really don’t know, but I’m sure he regrets that.” Fury couldn’t answer that one. It certainly would have changed the situation drastically.
“You, Mr. Fury have almost inadvertently caused the end of the world.” Sonya said looking at him skeptically.
“Well, I don’t know if is this my first time doing that.” Fury shrugged trying to make the mood a little lighter but Talos and Sonya did not budge.
“I am trying to fix it, I am.” Fury assured.
“And what have you done so far?” Sonya spoke in a curious tone.
“Well, I made breakfast for my wife who is now a member of the rebel group I’m fighting and then I came here.” Fury admitted, he had yet to really do anything to fight this invasion but it’s not like he had anywhere to go or anyone who could help him. He did not know who had the video of ‘him’ shooting Maria and he was afraid he would get arrested.
“Ah, so not a thing.” Sonya grumbled.
“No, we tried to work out a truce with Gravik and talk.” Talos interjected.
“And did that work?” Sonya asked sarcastically and she tilted her head at Talos.
“No…” Talos paused.
“But, we have someone on the inside.” Talos added.
“Really? That’s good news.” Sonya looked a bit more hopeful. “You can take your hands off your head Mr. Talos, I’m not going to kill you at the moment.”
“Just Talos is fine.”
“At the moment?” Fury looked at Sonya curiously.
“Mmm, well, I can’t tell when a skrull is pretending to be a human, but I can tell when someone is lying to my face.” Sonya said repeating what Fury said in her office days ago.
Fury nodded, their abilities to detect lies was one of the thing that brought Fury and Sonya together.
“Now, gentlemen, I’m afraid you caught me at a rather bad time.” Sonya started to say as she gestured at the men to get up from their chairs.
“You’re off to somewhere?” Fury asked.
“It’s time for you two to head on out and we can reconvene in a bit.” Sonya didn’t want to spill any details on her plans regarding the Daltons or Maria. It just seemed like Fury was going to weigh her down just like she told him days ago. Clearly, the plans he made were bad and he did not seem to be doing anything to fix the problems he’s caused. However, Sonya did want access to the spy on the inside of the rebel group. So maybe working with Fury and Talos wasn’t the worst idea.
“How do we reach you?” Fury questioned looking at Sonya unimpressed that she was dismissing them.
“Go to the diner on Hilgrove Ave, I’ll call the kitchen and they’ll connect us.”
As Sonya pushed Talos and Fury out of her flat, she grabbed her bag and she walked down the front step and locked her door. She then took her remote car starter and clicked the car on to warm it up a bit. As the car started there was suddenly a loud boom and fiery blast that nearly pushed Sonya, Fury, and Talos to the ground.
The three of them struggled for a moment to recover. Sonya then looked over from the sound she just heard and she saw her car ablaze in her driveway.
“My car!” Sonya yelled and gasped as she realized what had just happened. Someone tried to kill her! Sonya was stunned.
“I think they wanted it to be you…” Fury said obviously and Sonya turned her head slowly as she gave Fury an annoyed look.
Sonya could not get bogged down waiting for the fire department to come.
“I have to go. We can report it anonymously. Can you lot give me a lift somewhere?” Sonya went against her better judgement, but they had to leave now and fast.
Talos nodded to Sonya as he helped Fury get up from the ground. Sonya, Talos, and Fury went back inside quickly. As Sonya grabbed a burner phone from a drawer in her entry way. They raced out the back door as they knew people would be looking at her front yard from the blast. Talos shape shifted into another man with a thick accent as he called in the blast on the burner phone. He reported a car fire at Sonya’s address and the fire department said they’d be on their way.
Fury, Talos, and Sonya made their way from the back of Sonya’s yard to Fury’s car parked on a street behind Sonya’s flat. With any peering neighbors looking in her front yard they were able to escape undetected.
Sonya was a bit in shock. If Fury and Talos hadn’t showed up unexpectedly, she might have just gone right to her car, that would have been her in there. As the three of them got in the car, Sonya sat in the front seat. Fury was driving and Talos sat in the back. They were all quiet for a moment as Fury started driving aimlessly just to get away from the scene before anyone got there or noticed them.
“I think Director Weatherby is a skrull and he suspects I am on to him.” Sonya mumbled.
“Yeah, I think he does.” Fury said in an obvious tone and he nodded after what they just experienced.
“Do we know what the skrull rebels are doing with the people they are assuming?” Sonya asked.
“No, but I can find out.” Talos assured.
“Do you think they are killing all of them?” Sonya asked very concerned. She had to think the skrulls were everywhere now.
Talos paused because Maria asked him the same question days ago.
“I don’t think they can kill them to portray people so successfully for so long. When you’re a skrull you can only access recent memories by touching someone, but to get longterm memories, personal things they have to be storing the humans somewhere where they can access their mind.” Talos explained as Fury was still aimlessly driving.
“I have become aware that there are scientists helping these skrull rebels build machines.” Sonya shared.
“I think that’s why Gravik might want that DNA you have.” She added.
Fury turned his head and looked back at Talos. Fury sighed.
“He wants to be a super skrull.” Fury grumbled.
“Well we are going to prevent that.” Sonya assured then Sonya looked at the time on the car clock.
“Where are we going?” Fury asked.
“London City Airport.” She responded meagerly.
“Are you leaving us?” Talos asked.
“It’s actually an arrival.” Sonya said in a slightly devious yet excited tone.
Fury looked over to her and noticed her smile.
“Of who?” He asked intrigued.
“A friend of yours. You might be excited to see her, but I doubt she is going to be thrilled to see you… at least for a bit.” Sonya started and Fury took his eyes off the road to look at Sonya hopefully and he was shocked. Like he could not believe what Sonya was saying.
“Watch the road!” Sonya reminded.
“You’re not serious?” He asked.
“Well, I am hoping to be serious but given the situation, we better get to the airport before someone else does.” Sonya warned and Fury had never picked up speed so quickly as he realized that Sonya was trying to get Maria back.
“Why wouldn’t you lead with that information?” Talos asked from the backseat to Sonya.
“Because, I didn’t know if he was a skrull trying to kill me and ruin my plans. These skrulls have been trying to get Maria her whole exit out of Russia and I wasn’t going to let her get this close just to be upended. At least now I know why. I thought they were trying to kill her to keep her from exposing the story, now apparently she’s leverage for Avenger DNA.” Sonya said and Sonya rolled her eyes. She detested when men dangled women’s lives for personal gain. It was so cliche. Lots of work went into this, a lot of favors and people got hurt.
“He thinks she knows where the DNA is.” Fury clarified.
“Does she?”
“No, no one knows where it is, but me.”
“That’s how it needs to stay and no one should ever mention its existence again.” Sonya said swiftly and Fury nodded, he couldn’t agree more. What a mess this all made.
————
As the jet started to descend to London City Airport, Maria couldn’t believe it. They were making it. She tried not to get too hopeful about it. She sat in the cockpit with Rick and the two of them were eating chips and drinking sodas. It wasn’t Maria’s ideal breakfast but at the moment access to food was limited.
“You know, usually passengers sit in the passenger area.” Rick pointed out jokingly.
“Passenger? I’ve flown a few aircrafts before.” Maria joked back and Rick laughed.
“You worried I’m not taking you to London?” Rick asked and Maria tried not to nod because it did occur to her that could happen.
“A spy’s gonna spy, huh?” Rick mumbled.
“I’m not spying I am sitting next to you.” Maria rolled her eyes and then Rick smirked and he looked at her for a minute and smiled to himself. Maria did remind him of Natasha in a strange way. She was just as witty as her and they had just a similar something that he couldn’t put his finger on. They weren’t the same or anything but they just shared a vibe that they belonged to a similar time.
“Oh like a friend?” Rick asked with a little laugh.
Maria paused… “Yeah, like a friend.” She said with clear sarcasm.
“The last friend I had from your lot used to kick me when I was sleeping.” Rick sighed.
Maria looked at Rick and Rick could tell she instantly knew he was talking about Natasha.
“Were you two sleeping in the same places?” Maria slightly pried.
“Wow, you want the gossip, huh?” Rick looked surprised.
“I do not.” Maria shook her head.
“Nah, I was just helping a pal in need who had a lot requests. It was exhausting.” Rick explained.
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have been sleeping.” Maria suggested.
“Oh okay. You two are the same level of annoying, aren’t you?” He sighed.
“She was never annoying.” Maria said fondly and Rick scoffed with a little laugh.
“A little bit.” He held up his fingers in a small pinch motion and Maria smirked.
“Maybe a little. You know, Romanoff, she used to do this thing, that was a little annoying, where she would always have really cool jackets and she would never tell me where she got them.” Maria laughed remembering Nat with love. Maria didn’t blame her for this bit though, if Maria found jackets that nice she’d never tell Nat where she got them so she couldn’t one up her.
“Oh, I got her those.” Rick lied with a smirk and he laughed at the idea of these two professional spies and women of Avengers having some kind of secret jacket war.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, at international smugglers jacket depot.” Rick rolled his eyes.
“We call that Burlington Coat Factory in America.” Maria snarked and Rick really laughed he had to cover his mouth as he almost spit out the sip of soda he just took.
“Hey uhm, when we land how am I going to get out of the terminal without a passport?” Maria realized as they were getting ready to land.
“Oh, yeah. Good question. They didn’t ask me for anything like that, so you’re on your own once we touch down.” Rick said a bit somberly.
Maria looked a bit glum as that was definitely going to raise some concern to security at the airport.
“I can drop you off in a field somewhere.” Rick joked and then Maria looked at him worried.
“I’m just kidding, I got you.” He smirked and then Maria sighed.
“We’ll go through the unloading baggage area and out through the employees gate just like we came in but in reverse and this is much quicker because its a private jet terminal airport so, it will be real fast. A very fancy British woman told me it was of the utmost importance you go in and out undetected and unnoticed. Nobody notices the workers on the ground, do they?” Rick asked and Maria nodded, that was the truth.
“They definitely do not.” Maria agreed.
“It’s kind of cool, it’s like how it used to be in the old days with spies before all the technology advancements and glamour. Real Cold War stuff, you know?” Rick suggested and Maria nodded as it definitely was not glamorous spy work.
“Do I have to change?” Maria asked annoyed.
“Nah, with luggage loading you just throw a yellow vest on with an ID and you can go anywhere.” Rick shrugged.
“Seems like a huge security flaw in our airports…” Maria said with raised brows.
“There’s so much power in being unseen.” Rick looked over a Maria for a minute and Maria nodded.
“Sure is.” Maria mumbled to herself.
“LCA Tower, are we clear to land?” Rick asked into the radio.
“This is LCA Tower 2, you are clear to land.” A voice called back and Rick nodded as the jet tilted downward and its wheels coming out as it started to pull onto the runway. Maria held onto her seat as the pulled into the runway, the high speed of the jet getting slower and slower until it was finally moving at the speed of a car on a busy street.
She really couldn’t believe it as the wheels of the plane touched down in London. Even though Maria wasn’t guaranteed safety in London, she just felt so much safer being out of Russia that for the first time in two days and she actually felt some relief.