The Invisible Coder (Natasha x OC)

Chapter 24- The New Avengers Facility

"Dinner's at 5, don't be late or you're late," Tony ordered, exiting the room and closing the door behind him. I laughed and curled up, closing my eyes. Before I knew it, I was fast asleep.

~

In front of Bryce was a computer with some sort of code punched into the program. She squinted at it, finally getting it to zoom in just a little bit. She found a part of the program- it was a piece of a tracking code! She scanned around for more, but could only find a little bit more- a thing, a chemical... iridium... she was tracking iridium... but there was a fault in the code, that much she could tell...

The screen zoomed in and out very suddenly. The world began to blur.

No! She needed to focus!

The harder Bryce squinted, the less she saw and the more black covered her vision. She squinted as hard as she could, and everything went back.

Suddenly, she was outside of a building next to a tall man with raven black hair.

Loki nodded to Bryce as he entered the building. Bryce wasn't sure what it was called, but she knew that it was some sort of dancing or presenting hall.

She stood outside, on her post, waiting for further orders from Agent Barton. It had been almost 5 minutes before her earpiece crackled.

"We have the iridium," he told her. "Get back to the jet," 

Bryce responded immediately. "Yes, sir,"

Just then, Loki emerged from the building, people running and screaming, trying to get away. They all wore party clothes and gowns and suits, so clearly, the place they were coming from was some sort of fancy place. Bryce made a mental note and began to depart from the scene, hurrying down the block. 

Sirens screamed through the air. Bryce watched Loki frustratedly turn to the police car and fire a ball of blue energy at it, causing it to flip onto its bumper and skid down the road. Bryce turned back to get away, but the car flipped onto its back, the corner of its bumper smashing into her and hitting her across the head as it continued to skid away. Bryce crumpled, falling into unconsciousness.

~

"GAH!" 

I sat straight up, rigid and fearful. Upon realizing that I was safe, I sighed, laying back on my plush bed. My head thundered with memories, words, and people, and it all came so fast that I didn't have time to process what was in front of me.

After a moment, the memories slowed, and I was able to comprehend where I was and what I was doing. After all, everything had been terribly crazy. 

I slid off of my bed and checked the time: 3 pm. That left me two hours to explore.

I grinned and changed into training clothes, making my way down to the training arena. When I got there, nobody was inside, so I pulled out a Wavemaster and began some punching and kicking drills.

Eventually, I got bored of that, I wanted to practice my weapons training. I worked with shooting and moving targets, but there was something else I wanted to try. 

Mjolnir. 

I stuck out my hand, calling for the hammer. 

Nothing happened. 

There was no magnetic feeling, no gust of wind shooting into my hand, no vibrations.

Just nothing.

Now a bit anxious, I closed my fist and tried again. 

Still nothing. 

Frustrated, I stormed to the weapons keeping room and searched around until I found it. I grasped the handle and yanked on it. 

It lifted about a centimeter but did not leave the ground completely.

Perplexed, I pulled at it harder. It still would not lift any higher than it had.

Had I been dreaming? Did I not call Mjolnir to my hand in battle?

Devastated, I reluctantly let go of the hammer's handle.

"I think I know why,"

I spun around at the sound of Wanda Maximoff's voice.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"I think I know why you can't pick it up," Wanda repeated.

"Why not?" I grumbled, growing slightly suspicious. Had she messed with my head?

"Because the relief I put on you wasn't supposed to be temporary," Wanda explained. "When I fixed you up, I did two things- I showed you your lost memories, and intertwined in that was a feeling of fearlessness, which meant that as long as you remembered what happened to you, you wouldn't be afraid,"

"And?" I demanded.

"When... when Pietro... when he... you know... when he left, I... I must have messed it up. See... I let out a release of energy when he left, so when I did that, I must have unintentionally unwound the work I had done on you. Since you couldn't simply forget the lost memories, I accidentally took away your inability to fear them. In short... you are still vulnerable to fear of what you did while under the influence of the scepter. Apparently, your fear was what was holding you back, because now you can no longer pick up the hammer,"

She glanced down.

"However... you are healing... seeing all of the memories at once helped you get over a lot of it, I can tell. Perhaps... just because you're still afraid... perhaps that doesn't mean that you won't heal,"

All I could do was manage a small smile at her. I turned back to Mjolnir longingly.

"Is there any way you could redo it?" I asked hopefully. 

"Anything I manage to do would be temporary," she admitted. I deflated, turning away from the hammer that I would never be able to lift again. 

"However..." Wanda added with a small smile, "Fear is one of the many things that make us human,"

I pondered her words for a moment.

"You're right," I stated, turning to face her completely. "Thank you, Wanda,"

She nodded and motioned for me to follow her out of the room. I did, and I exited without taking another look at Mjolnir.

Maybe I wasn't worthy, but that didn't make me any less human.