Flightless Bird ( Steve Rogers Romance)

Part 2

After a longs nights work at the bar where I worked at, I walked into my apartment with the sure intention of sleeping for the rest of the day. It had a been a long night since the bar where I worked closed at 1:30 at the morning. I normally got home at about two or three am in the morning after I cleaned my station and closed the bar. But it was nearly 3:30 in the morning when I got home. I had been held back nearly half and hour due to a bar fight between to idiotic college kids. They had damaged some of the bar property and guess who got stuck cleaning it all up. Me.

Thankfully, I got the day off tomorrow since it was a Sunday and we never opened on those days. I also got Tuesdays off and only worked part time on Fridays witch were often out most busy days. I shared bartending duty with another girl named Samantha Forbes who was nice enough but our friendship was mostly confined to just work.

I unlocked my apartment door that creaked softly as I opened it and immediately flipped off my shoes. I stretched my hands over my head as I walked in. I could feel the little pin needle like feeling from where my wings were retracted within my back. It was a strange sensation that I was very used to by now. Whenever I was home alone I normally let my wings unfurl. Yet at the moment I was way too tired.

I shrugged off my jacket and placed it absently on my marble kitchen counter before shuffling thirdly towards my bedroom. I went to turn on the light since I still needed to brush my teeth and do a few other night time hygienic rituals that I always did before bed. But even before I flicked the light switch I noticed I wasn't alone in the room. My enhanced vision picked up on a human figures shadow that was sitting in the teal colored armchair in the corner of my room where I normally enjoyed drinking coffee in the morning. I felt a familiar prickle run down my spine from years of being a secret assassin. It was like an intruder alert warning. All the weariness from the long night faded within a split second.

The moment that the lights came on I ended up seeing a familiar face. I made a short sigh of relief as I looked upon none other than the notorious Director Fury. His emotionless eye was set upon me and I vaguely wondered how long he had been waiting. " Director Fury, its good to see you again" I claimed with a small smile.

" It's good to see you too Harper. It's been some time hasn't it?" He asked and a I nodded. The last time I had seen him was almost 2 years ago, when I had left S.H.I.E.L.D. to pursue a normal life. He looked the exact same though. He had the same stress lines and small wrinkles around his eyes and forehead. The same expressionless features and eye that I remembered. " This is a pleasant surprise Director Fury but might I ask what it is you need?" I asked since he had never personally come to my apartment on a check in. And even when S.H.I.E.L.D. agents like Nat or Clint did come to my apartment, it wasn't at 3:30 in the morning. Besides, Clint had come three weeks ago to see how I was doing.

" Harper there was been an attack upon S.H.I.E.L.D. that occured just 10 hours ago. An attack that leveled an entire S.H.I.E.L.D research lab facility and the man responsible is on the run with something he took from us" Fury explained as I arched a brow. S.H.I.E.L.D research labs were more well secured that area 51. How could some managed to level the entire place. Especially if it was just one guy. " I request that you to come back to S.H.I.E.L.D., to aid us in bringing the man to justice" Fury said and I gave a small scoff as I took a seat across from him on the soft blue comforter that covered my queen sized bed.

" What aren't you telling me Fury?" I asked with a small smirk. He should have known better than to hide some of the truth from me. He was leaving out some major details here. Fury gave a small grin as he divulged the rest of the information " The man who destroyed the research lab goes by the name Loki. He took with him the tesseract. It's a foreign energy source that we had been testing on due to its unique ability to produce clean sustainable energy" Fury continued and it seem to become clear as to why he would need me. I had heard that name Loki before but I couldn't quite place where. But I did know exactly what the Tesseract was. During my days with S.H.I.E.L.D. and even with The Hand, there was always talk about the Tesseract. All sorts of jibber jabber about its power.

" So you need me to help you guys retrieve this tesseract and take out Loki? Can't Nat, Clint, and the other top agents get rid of him?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest. Fury sighed as if he had dreaded this question. " That's one of the problem. Normal agents can take on a normal adversary but Loki is not a human. The second problem is that Agent Barton has been compromised" Fury told me and my eyebrows nearly shot of my forehead. Clint was once of the most efficient agents I had ever known. And I was also reasonably close to him. He had helped me recuperate into a normal life when I had left S.H.I.E.L.D..

I sprung up quickly from my bed " Clint is compromised? Why didn't you just say so. Get me on the nearest Quinjet to the helicarrier now" I told him seriously. If Clinton was in trouble it was my natural duty to get him to safety. He would have done the same for me. I would bet money that if Nat and I teamed up we could get back Clint within a few days. Fury gave a satisfied grin as he stood up. He easily towered over me even if I was a solid 5'8. " That's good to hear. There will be a quinjet waiting at the Greyhound central air way for you at 0900. Get some rest and in the morning you can read the mission's file I left on the top of your dresser. Agent Coulson will be waiting for you at the and hopefully another recruit will be there too" Fury explained and I nearly argued against it. I wanted to get to the helicarrier as soon as possible. I could go for almost 2 days without sleep if need be but of course it did take a toll on me.

I decided to address something else " Other recruit?" I asked furrowing my brows. If he was recruiting other people for this cause then I could only imagine that he was trying to create some sort of team. I remember reading something about an Avengers initiative a couple years ago back when I briefly worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.. It was some sort of idea to bring together a team of ultimate heroes to fight for justice. For the moment, I didn't really care if that was his idea in the long run since right now the only thing that really mattered was getting back Clint.

Fury nodded " He goes by the name of Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America" Fury claimed casually and this caused me to scoff in surprise. Captain America? As in the super soldier from the 1940s era who took out Hydra? A couple months ago he had been fished out of the Atlantic as I remember seeing all the headline on TV. He was the man out of time itself. I had even had a short discussion about it with Natasha and knew for a fact that when they had fished out the Captain they found something else with him. The Tesseract.

" I guess I'll be meeting him soon" I noted blankly. Fury took several steps away from me and towards the door. He walked with his hands behind him with a serious demeanor that I was very used to. " Thank you for your time Agent Silviano, I'll be seeing you again shortly" Fury started before leaving the room entirely and exiting right through the front door.

Once he left I ended up skimming through the file he had left. It was a dense packed full of papers and papercliped documents. I found out why the name Loki sounded so familiar. It was due to the fact that he was actually a Norse god of all things. Loki was a the god of mischief and I could now understand more of why Fury wanted to recruit a team of sorts. A Norse god was a little bit above my pay grade. But a team of elite powerhouse might have a chance against him.

I read a short article about the super soldier Steve Rogers. From the transcript it claimed that he had willingly undergone experimentation to become the super soldier he was today. Before that he had been a scrawny and sickly little child. It even mentioned the name of a woman named Peggy Carter.

I fell asleep with a file about Captain America