Space Between Us

Level 7

In the three years she had been a SHIELD agent she had shot up the clearance levels. She had been on missions for almost the entirety of the past few years and stayed at the Barton household in between. Cooper was three and their little sister, Lila, was one and crawling around at speeds that could give a quinjet a run for its money. Mor walked through SHIELD in the standard uniform, next to none other than the infamous Captain America. Steve glanced down at her, "Do you know why Fury wants us?" 

She shook her head, "He is video calling Hawkeye, Black Widow and Coulson is visiting Iron Man, I'll hazard and guess it's about the same thing."

He nodded and frowned, "I have no clue where we are." 

The corner of her mouth curled up, "Third floor, section B." 

He nodded, "Thanks- this place is going to take forever for me to map out." 

They reached Fury's office- it was nowhere as big as the one in the main HQ- and she knocked.

 "Come in." 

They sat opposite him as he started, "Agent, Captain. I would like to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative. Maria Hill, Phil Coulson and myself are making a group of remarkable people, heroes, to defeat what others can't." He placed a file each in front of them with Avengers Initiative and CLASSIFIED printed onto the front. The first page was photos of all chosen candidates before it moved onto profiles. Mor stared at her biological fathers face a bit longer than any of the others. She had forgotten what he looked like, the same way she had almost forgotten her birth name. 

As soon as she had read them all she looked to her boss, "So basically you're making a group of superheroes?" 

He nodded and Steve looked up, "How long until this team is active?" 

Fury shrugged, his face not revealing anything, "Until the world needs the Avengers." There was a brief silence, "For now, however, you two have a new mission."

  ~~~

On the jet out to Italy Mor excused herself and called Laura. She picked up after two rings, "Hey sweetheart, are you okay? I heard about the Avengers thing." 

She smiled and looked at her feet, "Yeah, mom, I'm fine. I was calling to let you know Fury's given me a new mission." 

There was a small pause, "Stay safe, okay? Where is it?" 

"Italy. The captain and I are taking down a terrorist, called Ten Rings, base not far from one of the cities," Mor sat down on one of the small, metal benches.

She could hear the confusion clearly, "Who is the captain?" 

She had completely forgotten to tell Laura about him, "Captain America- they found him under the ice nine months ago, this is his fifth mission and his second one with me." She could hear Clint in the background, "Lila get back here!" She struggled to hold back a laugh, "Anyways I need to go. We need to plan. Love you." 

Laura sighed, "Love you too, stay safe sweetheart." 

She put her phone into one of the lockers and walked back out to where Steve was waiting, "You ready?"

~~~   

It was hours later when they were standing by the open hatch, high up in the air. They weren't high enough to need a parachute, not that Steve would have used one anyway, but the landing would still hurt a little. Steve nodded at her and they took a few steps backward. They ran back towards the hatch and jumped out, the air whipping around them. They fell for around twenty seconds, and rolled as they landed, making the impact as minimal as possible. She took out her compass and pointed to their left, "The base is that way- roughly 4 miles." She put the compass away as Steve nodded and they started the journey.

~~~

It took an hour and a half to walk to the base. A truck appeared on the road and they ducked behind a bunch of bushes. As soon as it passed them they nodded at each other and started running at it, jumping into the back. Thankfully it was one of the trucks with sides and doors made out of plastic covers, so they didn't face plant into a slab of metal. The four Ten Rings agents stood as soon as they got over the shock, and started to attack. Steve smashed his shield against the back of one of their heads and Mor sliced one of their throats open with her katana, before slicing her sword through another's stomach. By the time she turned around Steve had knocked out both of his agents. He raised an eyebrow at the dead agents then back up at Mor, who simply shrugged and cleaned her blade on the sleeve of one of the men's uniform sleeve.

~~~  

There was a million ways a mission could go wrong, and within an hour most of them already had. Steve pulled Mor to his chest and put his shield in front of them, but not before a bullet hit her left thigh. She grunted in pain and Steve shot her a concerned glance, "Are you okay, doll? Can you walk?" 

She gave him a tired look, "I have to be, you ready?" 

He nodded and pulled them behind a corner, "Are you?" 

She stood up straight and pulled her katana out of its sheath, "Lets do this." As soldiers turned the corner Steve tried his best to keep the worst of the fire away from them. He knew she could protect herself but it looked like it was 300 to 2 and counting. Mor used every ounce of training she had to fight, trying to hold back a smirk at the sound of her blade slicing through skin and bone. As good as they both were escaping unscathed was more unlikely than Fury smiling. A bullet hit Steve's shoulder from behind, another just below Mor's ribs. He grabbed her wrist as soon as she was close enough and forced open the locked door behind them, dragging her into an empty room and slamming the door closed. She gave him a weak mock-glare, "You couldn't have done that sooner?" He rolled his eyes and pushed a bunch of containers in front of the door. 

He noticed the growing pool of blood on her side and rushed over, "Why didn't you tell me you were shot?" He pressed his hand against the wound, swinging his shield onto his back.

She looked at his shoulder, "You never said anything either!" The door shuddered as bodies rammed into it. She shook her head, "We don't have time for this, lets just find a way out." She moved away from his hand and started to look around for a door, a secret passage or anything that would get them out. She looked down at the floor and her eyes widened, she grinned and pulled off a a metal grid. Thank god they didn't consider safety precautions. She placed the grid down before reaching for the second one, wincing as she stretched her wound. Her plan was risky, and the blood loss was making it hard to concentrate and the chances were it would most likely not work, but it was better than nothing. As soon as the second grid was out of the way she stared down at the empty gap, ten meters above a thin walkway. "Steve how do you feel about jumping to our almost certain deaths?" The door opened a little, but Steve slammed it shut again.

He walked over and peered down into the hole, helping Mor to her feet, "I think it is our only chance." He picked her up, careful of the bullet wound, "Hold on tight." Before she could ask why he had picked her up, he jumped into the meter by meter square, clutching her to his chest. They barely landed on the walkway, the impact echoing around the room. Mor had landed directly on top of Steve- her head hit the side walk on the right of his head, she passed out on impact. Something clattered beside them and Steve pulled his shield off his back, careful not to injure his partner more, and put in between them and the object. Just in time for a bomb to go off, and the walkway to collapse beneath them, chunks of ceiling following them down.