Thief
Sam shot up from his chair.
“Barton!”
Remy, Wanda and Rhodey burst out laughing. Sam rushed over to the sink to wash his face and Pepper got up to hand him a towel. Clint looked a bit guilty but then he smirked.
“Wet bird.”
Natasha reached over the table and smacked him on the head.
“OW! Why do you keep doing that?”
“You’re an idiot.”
No one argued with her on that. Clint shrugged and turned back to Tony.
“What do you mean he is the boss of Hydra?”
Tony shook his head almost as if he didn’t know how to answer that question or didn’t know himself how that was possible. Remy sighed.
“Easy. Ross has been a part of Hydra ever since the Hulk got away from him. He was one of the lower agents since he didn’t manage to capture Big Green. Then Hulk became a part of the Avengers and Ross promised he would get him. But the whole Chitauri attack happened and they didn’t get any chance because people loved Hulk. After that Ross was doing more and more risky things for them and working his way up in Hydra ranks. He managed to find some of the more hidden files on some of the most important people in UN and that got him a high place in the rank. He managed to blackmail some of the UN members into working for Hydra. The former boss liked him very much and it was said that Ross was going to be the next boss when the old one died. Then there was an attack on the base the boss was in and everyone died. Ross took up the boss place. The Accords were his idea. He wanted Hydra to be able to control the Avengers so that he could do whatever he wanted without anyone stopping him. When Captain America didn’t want to sign and took some of the heroes with him Ross saw the chance to get rid of some of them. He had all the files Pierce had on James Winter and was ready to use that as blackmail in case Tony ever would try to back out of the Accords.”
Everyone was staring at him. He frowned.
“What?”
The first one to collect herself was Natasha.
“How do you know all that?”
He looked at her almost as if she had grown a second head.
“I’m a THIEF. Doesn't that explain everything?”
Tony smirked but the rest of them shook their heads.
“I stole Ross files from Hydra. When I was working for them. That was why Ross didn't like me. I knew too much.”
Steve looked at him with surprise.
“So you stole from them while you were supposed to work for them?”
Remy shrugged.
“As I said Captain. I’m a thief. And since some time back I like to know who I’m working for.”
Tony nodded.
“You know anything more?”
“About?”
“Ross. Hydra. Whatever you managed to find.”
Remy smiled. He loved the fact that Tony didn’t judge him for his stealing.
“Ross wanted to change the Avengers team into Dark Avengers. Of course Tony would be the leader. Ross had enough blackmail material to make Tony do whatever he wanted him to do. As he knew that Captain America would be able to get together a team on his own, he knew that he had to create a big team to beat the Captain. So he pulled up some files on people that hated the Avengers. He was going to contact Dr. Karla Sofen, Cain Marko, Yelena Belova, Victor Von Doom and Morgan Le Fay. They also wanted to use a part of Thor that they had to create a clone of him called Ragnarok.”
Once again the Avengers were staring at him. He sighed.
“You have questions.”
Clint slowly asked:
“How good are you?”
Remy smirked at that.
“I’m the best thief you can find out there. I’ve been in this since I was a child.”
Then Natasha leaned over the table a bit.
“Yelena Belova was a russian spy. She was trained in the Red Room. Ever since the beginning she wanted to be THE Black Widow but she never managed to get as good as me. But why would Ross want to contact her if I was on his side with the Accords?”
No one answered. Remy looked around and thought for a long moment. He trusted Tony, Wanda and Natasha. Tony had told him about Winter, Pepper and Rhodey before. But could he trust the rest. Many of them had been against Tony. Vision was a big unknown even though he had said that he was partly Jarvis. But could they be trusted? He glanced over to Tony and the older man nodded almost as if he had understood the cajun’s thoughts. And if Tony trusted them…
“Ross knew that you would eventually side with the Captain. He wanted to make sure that he had a replacement for you. He wanted to get one villain against each hero that might side with Captain America. I took some of the files that he had on them and figured out who they were. Dr. Karla Sofen is also known as Moonstone. She was a successful psychologist and psychiatrist but became tired of being dependant on the patient’s to get money. She joined the criminals and found out about Lloyd Bloch, the original Moonstone. She then became his psychiatrist and manipulated him into giving up his powers so that she could absorb them. She became the new Moonstone. Cain Marko served in the US-army when he found some kind of ritualistic cave. Didn’t really read into the details. He touched some ruby and chanted some words. He got some powers and became a human juggernaut. Therefore the name. Juggernaut. He has been confused with mutants before but his power is not a mutation. Victor Von Doom was born to a sorceress. His parents died when he was young and it seemed that misfortune was following him. He came over to the US and went to some school. Then he built a machine that literally exploded in his face. His face got damaged and he was expelled. He moved and made a suit of armor with a scowling mask. He took the name Doctor Doom. Morgan Le Fay is partly fae. She was Arthur Pendragon’s sister. The fae part made her immortal. She is a sorceress. Many people say she is the best one out there. Yelena Belova is, as Natasha said, a former soviet spy. She is mostly living in the criminal underworld now.”
They kept staring at him. Natasha and Tony were taking mental notes of what he was saying while Clint did his best to remember if he had read about any of those people in any files. Sam was looking at Remy with sharp eyes.
“How do you remember all that?”
Remy shrugged.
“During my thief career I’ve learned to remember things. How to get past things. The most important things about people. People’s weaknesses.”
Sam slowly nodded. Remy knew they didn’t trust him completely. He would never trust a person like himself completely. Then Tony smiled.
“You impress me Cajun.”
Remy lowered his head a bit in a mock-bow. Steve was frowning.
“You said something about some clone of Thor.”
Remy burst out laughing.
“Oh, yeah. That.”
He pulled two vials from the pocket of his coat and held them up. One of them was filled with blood and the other held a few blonde strands of hair.
“You still think I shouldn’t steal from Hydra Captain?”
Steve shook his head a bit and smiled. Meanwhile Remy turned to the others and asked:
“You want me to destroy this?”
Most of them nodded. Suddenly the vials glew purple and Remy’s eyes flashed purple for a second. The cajun threw the vials at the wall and they exploded but, to everyone’s surprise, no blood was visible. When they turned to Remy he smirked.
“A new trick. If I charge whatever a liquid is in enough it will warm the liquid to the point of it evaporating. Whatever the liquid may be. The blood is gone.”
Wanda smiled at him and he stilled. For a second he looked almost as if he was hit by a lightning but the next second he was looking away from her and towards Tony again.
“I don’t know if those people have been contacted yet but I would guess that they will be contacted now. Especially since Ross knows that Tony has his powers back and that you all are here.”
Tony nodded.
“Well then. We better get ready to fight them. They are only five and maybe some Hydra agents. We can do this. We have been through worse.”
Sam looked around and then turned to Tony.
“Stark. Tony. I know that the Avengers have dealt with worse things before. But are you sure that you can all work together again? After what happened.”
But Tony looked sure about what he was saying.
“We’ll just need to practice a bit together before we go out there and fight. It will take some time before Ross can get all his ‘heroes’ together. That gives us some time.”
Then he smiled and looked around.
“I have faith in us.”