Who We Used to Be

Chapter 9

The newly gathered Avengers team all sat around a meeting table in the control room of the helicarrier after having just retrieved Loki from his dramatic demonstration in Stuttgart. They weren't quite sure what to do now. They couldn't go look for the Tesseract since they had no idea where it might be. The only person (or god) who might know that was Loki, and they couldn't go try and interrogate him for its location or his plan until Fury got back.

Before he'd left, he'd told them to 'get to know each other'. Whatever that meant. Natasha had no reason to want to get to know or even remotely like these people. Besides, she was still slightly put on edge from their close encounter earlier. And from the look on Steve's face across the table from her, she could tell he was too.

"So...", Doctor Banner started awkwardly. He'd been dragged out of his lab so he could make introductions too. And his body language practically screamed that he would like nothing better than to get back there.

Thankfully, Tony Stark, ever the outgoing one, picked up on what he was trying to do and started a conversation. What she wasn't so thankful for, however, was the topic of that conversation.

"So where were you two earlier? You were supposed to be here but instead it was just little old me. No wonder nobody but my science bro here knew anything from the reading", he said, slapping Dr. Banner on the back good-naturedly. The unfortunate doctor looked extremely uncomfortable with his new status as Tony Stark's "Science Bro".

Steve looked to Natasha to answer the question. After all, it wasn't really his mission. He'd just been called in as backup. He wasn't sure what he was allowed to say and what he wasn't.

"We were on a recruitment mission", she answered carefully.

"Recruitment mission? Who did you go to get? And where are they?".

Natasha and Steve exchanges uncomfortable looks.

"Unless... no! The infamous Black Widow failed a mission! I never thought I'd see the day!", Tony cried in his usual dramatic fashion.

Neither of the two's expressions changed, and Tony rolled his eyes at the lack of reaction to his theatrics.

"Really? Nothing? Man, you guys are a tough crowd. Seriously though, what happened? Who were you trying to get?".

Should she tell them? Technically, she wasn't allowed to. All details of any of her missions were strictly classified. But based on how the mission had gone, there was a high chance the team would see them again later. SHIELD didn't know much about the three, and anything she could share with them could be helpful.

With her decision made, she took out a file from seemingly nowhere dropped it onto the middle of the table for them all to see.

The usual 'CLASSIFIED' stamp covered the front in bold red, but she ignored it and flipped it open.

"This file contains all the information SHIELD has on three mercenaries that have made a name for themselves recently in the intelligence community. They are extremely dangerous".

Tony looked at the file in front of him skeptically.

"Extremely dangerous? That file is only four pages thick. How dangerous can they be?".

"They're credited with over 75 kills within the last two years", Natasha deadpanned.

Tony paled rapidly, making her feel just the tiniest bit satisfied.

"Nobody knows who they are, where they come from, or even why they do what they do. As far as we can tell, they receive no money for their services, and they don't have an employer. In fact, the only connection we can find between them is with each other".