A Team in Shambles
Agent Hill, whom I wasn’t too familiar with, Fury, Tony, Steve, and I were gathered at the conference table again. Phil had gone to rest, which I had told him to do. Healing magic not only takes energy from me, but from the person I’m healing as well. Phil wasn’t too bad off, but I insisted he still needed rest.
Interestingly, Steve came over to check on me right away. I just explained that I was feeling a bit tired from the magic usage. He seemed to understand and left for a couple minutes, returning with a bottle of water and a banana. I couldn’t thank him enough for his thoughtfulness.
The energy in the room was somber. We had lost so much in just a few minutes, and everyone was blaming themselves.
“We’re dead in the air up here,” Fury was the first to speak. “Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor… I got nothing for you.”
He walked around the table. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark and Green know this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to; to fight the battles that we never could. I know Phil still believes in that idea. I still believe in that idea. In heroes.”
Wow. Talk about a dramatic moment… No pressure here or anything…
Tony stood up and left.
Fury continued, “Well, it’s an old fashioned notion.”
I thought things over for a moment.
Sure, it might be old fashioned, but that may very well be the only thing protecting the Earth. If I truly wanted to do my job as a goddess of this planet, I needed to do everything I could. These people could offer me that ability.
“I’m still in.” Resolve nearly made my voice tremble as I stood. “I have to help everyone. If that means I’m on my own, then so be it. But I have to try.” I could see Steve seem to regard me with a curious look on his face as I took a breath. “Right, I’m going to find Natasha and see how Agent Barton is doing.”
I stood and walked to the infirmary level. Fury had told me earlier that Agent Barton was brought in. If he was still under the Tesseract’s control, maybe I could see if I could help him get out of it. That way if I ever did get close enough to Loki again, I may be able to help him the same way. Loki’s control went much deeper than Clint’s, but I knew there must be some way I could help.
Soon I managed to find the room the two agents were in. “Anyone need some healing?” I asked with a small smile on my face.
“Who are you?” Barton looked at me warily.
“That’s Agent Evie Green. She’s got magic or something. She might be able to help you.”
“I know I can,” I slowly walked in and sat on the edge of the bed, I didn’t want to frighten him. “Natasha, may I heal you first to show him I mean no harm?”
“Sure. A huge pipe fell on my legs earlier; it’s definitely sore.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
She stood in front of me as deep blue magic flowed from my hands. It circled her body as it searched out everything to heal. Luckily, her wounds were mostly superficial, and thanks to the snack from Steve, it didn’t take much energy from me.
As I called my magic back once I felt her healed, I looked at Clint. “Would it be alright if I healed you? I might be able to see if there’s any lingering presence of the Tesseract and remove it.”
His gray eyes looked over Natasha, gauging to see if I had hurt her at all, before responding, “Okay.”
I held my hands out once more but closed my eyes this time. I needed to concentrate to look for shards of the Tesseract’s power. In his mind, I could feel just a touch of it. It felt slimy and gooey. The black tar-like substances pulsing with the same electric blue light as the Tesseract still lingered in the corners of Agent Barton’s mind. I reached in with my power and cleaned it out. Once I felt the parasitic power gone, I healed the rest of him.
My power came back to me, and I let out a sigh. I held the ball of black and glowing blue in my hand. Instinctively, I knew to rip it apart and let the power dissipate. So I did just that, and the Tesseract’s control was gone.
With shoulders slumping from exhaustion, I smiled at Barton. “Nice to meet you, Agent Barton.”
“Call me Clint.” He shook out his body and stood up. “Wow, this is amazing! I feel so much better! Thank you Agent Green.”
I waved it off. “Call me Evie. I may not be able to help with the emotional damage the mind control did to you, but at least now you know you’re 100% free of that thing’s power.”
“Are you alright? You look pale…” Natasha asked me.
I laid myself fully on the recently vacated bed. “’m fine. Healing just exhausts me faster than any of my other powers. I just need to rest a moment.”
“Alright…” Her tone of voice suggested she didn’t fully believe me, but also didn’t know how else to help me. “I don’t suppose you know where Loki is, Clint?”
“I didn’t need to know. I didn’t ask.” He took a sip of water. “He’s gonna make his play soon though. Today.”
“We’ve got to stop him,” Natasha said.
“Yeah? Who’s we?”
Natasha and I shared a look. “I don’t know. Whoever’s left. Evie has other powers. She will help.” I nodded to back up her point.
“Well,” Clint said. “If I put an arrow through Loki’s eye socket, I’d sleep better I suppose.” I snickered and sat up.
“Now you sound like you,” she gave a slight smirk.
“But you don’t,” retorted Clint.
Sensing a moment between two friends, I made a flimsy excuse and headed to the detention level— the last place Tony was seen heading.
When I walked in, Steve was speaking. “Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list…”
“He made it personal,” Tony interrupted.
“That’s not the point…”
“It is the point. That’s Loki’s point. He hit us all right where we live? Why?”
“To tear us apart,” Steve answered.
“Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”
My brain started thinking of multiple possibilities.
What would his next move be? If I were Loki, where would I go for a worldwide audience?
“Right, I caught his act in Stuttgart.”
“Yeah, that’s just previews. This is opening night. And Loki— he’s a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered...”
“Tony…”
“Hang on, Evie. I’m thinking.”
He kept on mumbling. “Tony, I think this is important…”
This time he ignored me.
“STARK!” He finally looked at me, shocked at hearing his last name for the second time today. “Who on this planet just built an arc-reactor powered monument to the skies with his name plastered on it?”
I could see when he made the connection by the way his eyes lit up. “Son of a bitch…”
He hurried off with Steve and I at his heels. “A thank you would have been nice,” I huffed.
“Tony doesn’t seem to be the type to thank people.”
“Got that right,” I said.
Steve broke off to get Natasha and Clint while Tony got his suit back in working order. I went to the hangar to see if we could find any usable jets. I found a few, but they were heavily guarded. I hoped Steve had a way to commandeer one.
Before I knew it, Steve, Clint, and Natasha met up with me. “Steve, the jets are guarded. I hope you have a plan.”
“I do.”
He just started strutting like he owned the place straight to a jet. I felt my eyes widen, and Natasha just shrugged at me before following his lead. Clint and I followed suit. I could feel eyes turning to stare at us and my nerves shot up.
Okay, just breathe. You’re fine. You are a total badass.
And with the way these people were looking at me, I felt like a badass.
We boarded a jet, and a man tried to stop us. But Steve simply held up his hand and said, “Son, just don’t.”
The man backed off, and we got the jet up and ready to go. And by we, I mean Natasha and Clint. Steve and I had no clue how to even start working these things.
When we took off through the hangar, I spoke up. “Fury will know that we’re gone by now.”
Steve looked up from across the way. “I know. I expect communications will start up again soon.”
Silence followed before I gathered my courage to explain what I needed to do. “Once we land, I’m going after Loki. I think…”
I didn’t get to finish my sentence due to everyone talking at once.
Well, maybe that wasn’t the best way to lead into that conversation.
Steve was shouting that it was reckless. Nat was threatening to turn the jet around and leave me with Fury. Clint had a few expletives thrown in, but mainly yelled about how he wanted a shot at Loki.
“Okay, okay! Shut it for a minute! You didn’t let me finish!” I huffed. “Look, I helped Clint. I removed the mind control. And earlier, with Phil and Loki on the detention level, I saw his eyes change colors. I asked Thor what color Loki’s eyes are, and he said green. But we have all seen him, and he has…” I trailed off, wanting them to put the puzzle together.
“Blue eyes.” Natasha was the first to realize. “You think he’s being mind controlled too?”
“I know he is. I saw his eyes change for myself.”
“And you can help him?”
“Whoever is controlling him put so much more magic into him than Clint ever had. It will probably be a struggle, but I think I can do it.”
“Woah, woah, woah! You’re not actually going to let her do this, are you?!” Clint piped in. “What about my vengeance?!”
Natasha gave Clint a side eye. “If Evie’s right, he’s doing this out of his control. You’ll get your vengeance when we find whoever is controlling Loki.”
He opened his mouth to retort but seemed to think better of it.
“Evie,” Steve asked softly. “I don’t know if we can get you close enough to Loki to do that. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“No, I thought of that. All of us won’t be able to get to him. It will have to be me alone. Anyone else and he’ll see it as a threat. But I have an ace up my sleeve that I plan to play. He asked me to ‘rule with him’ earlier. I’m planning on making it look like I agreed to it. And if I play it right, I’ll manage to get within healing distance. To get it right though, I will need you to hang back. Focus on whoever else he is controlling. He needs to think I’m on his side.”
“Are you sure you’re up for that level of subterfuge?” Nat asked.
I gave a small grin. “I can be believable when I want to be.”
“If you get this wrong, you could be killed.” Steve gave me a stern look.
“I know. But this is for the good of the world and for Loki. From the way Thor cares for him, I couldn’t bear to let myself not give this a shot. Besides, this is what I was created for. To save people.”
He gave me a knowing look then glanced out the window. “I know the feeling.”