The Blood Between Us (Loki/Avengers)

Meet Carol, the Plane Fanatic (2)

Meet Carol, the Plane Fanatic (2)

~CAROL~

1430 hours (2:30 PM).

My best friend, Michael Rossi, has a theory that there are two positions that agents of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division - better known as SHIELD - fantasize about being at least once in their life. According to him, you dream about either being the Director or an Avenger at least once.

If you were feeling ambitious, you fantasized about being the Director. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal; every dirty secret of the country was at your disposal, as well as having access to pretty much every weapons vault of every government base. Even the title sounded impressive - being the head of a spy organization was something people took seriously. But, of course, you'd have to manage to overthrow the Incredible Expressionless Man (commonly known as Nick Fury) to get that job.

Then again, if you were really ambitious, you fantasized about being an Avenger. That position is much harder to get than Director, given that there were only six of them in existence, and there's the detail that you have to have a superpower and not pose a threat to global well-being. But the rewards were excellent; you'd become an international hero and be looked up to by kids and fantasized about by teenagers and reluctantly admired by adults (as well as being a slap in the face to government officials not in SHIELD).

But then again, out of seven billion people, six of them got this power and worldwide fame. Obviously, they had to bust their arses trying to save it from that horned maniac last year, but still, it took six people to bring down an entire armada of aliens. And even if you didn't have a power, you still had to be some kind of military prodigy, like being able to never miss with a bow and arrow or to build your own giant suit of justice or knowing twenty ways to kill someone with a toothpick.

Director or Avenger. That was what me and Michael were arguing over on my plane's intercom.

"Okay, how'd you even get on here?" I finally asked, tired of all the questions.

"I have my ways," he mused, and I could already picture him wiggling his eyebrows.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, by his ways he meant that he'd hacked into my bird's radio system and immediately started to bug me the whole freaking test flight. "Look, Michael," I began, when the speakers buzzed and the voice of Walter Lawson, Michael's cousin, came through the intercom.

"Rossi, leave the girl alone," he ordered with a hint of teasing edging his voice.

"Thanks, Walter, but how'd you get on here?" I asked.

"Yeah," Michael added, sounding suspicious.

I heard Walter sigh. "Just get down here. Today was exhausting."

Right before he clicked off, I countered, "Exhausting? You're not the one piloting a F-15." I heard him give me an annoyed grunt before he left the intercom.

"Meet you at Dunkin Donuts?" Michael asked.

"Yup," I agreed as he clicked off too.

I leaned the throttle to the side, and the whole plane tilted on its starboard wing, turning smoothly through the air. I angled the F-15 towards another bird, a plane I recognized as being piloted by my co-worker, a nice girl named Sharon Carter. I levelled the plane next to hers, waving at her lithe silhouette and getting a blurry wave back. I lowered the ailerons and swooped down to the base next to her, my pulse racing excitedly as the descent sped up. Yeah, I've always been one of those guys who never stopped having those kiddie dreams about flying, let alone liking it so much that I'd joined the US Air Force as soon as I'd graduated.