The Nikki Wolf Chronicles || Avengers

CHAPTER (23) TWENTY THREE

"Now all we need is a sappy love story," Bruce comments, as the icy rain drenches everything in its path.

"Don't look at me," Steve replies, in a joking manner.

"I repeat, group of roughly fifty S.H.I.E.L.D. trained men and women, located at Mitchell Square Park," Bruce speaks into his earpiece for the second time. "No one is responding."

"Do you think they're okay?"

Bruce stands, having been hiding behind the fence, and stares at the crowd. "Yeah. I think so." He glances down at Steve. "Don't you?"

In response, Steve stands. Testing their luck, he yells, "Hey, do something, you schticks!" Bruce gives him an odd luck. "What? You don't use that, anymore?"

"No. What's it mean? It sounds rather derogatory."

"It is Yiddish. For 'gimmicks.' It's like these guys are protesting. They're just standing there."

Right at that moment, a police officer starts stomping towards them, rain sliding off his ball cap. They just barely hear, "You guys can't do this here." The cop reaches out and grabs the shoulder of one of the agents, roughly.

Spinning around, the woman grabs his hand, twists his arm, and forces the officer to flip onto his back. Directly after, she goes back to her original position.

"Bruce... Is that Nikita?" He follows Steve's extended index finger, and sees Nikki approaching the agents. "Do you think she knows they're not thinking for themselves?" He doesn't say anything back, and they quietly watch her.

The police officer scrambles up, warning Nikki, then running off for back up, maybe. Nikki walks up to a man, and starts talking with him, making sure she's looking straight into his eyes.

But, the man refuses to look back, and his fist shoots out, grazing Nikki's cheek. She stays standing, and the agent lets his left fist go flying, but Nikki must have been anticipating it, because she snatches his wrist and grabs their face, forcing him to meet her glower.

After she exchanges a few words, she steps back, and they watch as that man turns around, speaks to someone, then walks away in the general direction of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nikki starts to follow, but Steve yells out to her.

She fixates her attention on them, smiles, and bounds over. Her hair is in a mess of tangles from the rain. She meets them under a tree, despite the occasional lightning strike, and wipes her face clear with the bottom hem of her tee shirt. Bruce and Steve thoughtfully look away.

"Hey guys!" she chirps. "I was lucky to find all of these people in one area. So, I convinced one to reverse the effect."

"Why did he walk away?"

"It seems that they only change one person, before being released from all spells. I asked him to go to S.H.I.E.L.D., and he told the next, and et cetera." All three of them face the agents, seeing them trickle into line and head back to base. "They are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents... Right?"

Steve nods grimly. "Unfortunately. What happens to the last one that has no one to turn to?"

Nikki shrugs. "I think they go off and try to find someone else. I'm not really sure. Do you think this will make a good dent on Loki's plans?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely," Steve says, but Bruce looks slightly unsure.

"I do. Unless you setting everyone straight is his plan. I mean, all these people in one spot. How convenient. Maybe he wants us to be distracted. He's the God of Mischief and Trickery. Nothing is certain about him. There's even the possibility that he's not plotting alone; like a conspiracy."