A New Generation, a New Villain (An Avengers Fan Fiction)

A New Generation, a New Villain - Chapter Five

"All right. Come here."

I took a breath and shuddered inwardly as I followed Mom, Bruce, and a S.H.I.E.L.D. nurse into the room where Natasha sat. I could handle missions, and I could fire a bullet at someone, but dealing with blood and needles and surgical equipment and oozy, opened skin just made me want to vomit. I was able to suffer through it, however, and was standing at Natasha's side when it was all said and done.

"You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

I bit my lip. "It looked like it really hurt."

She furrowed her eyebrows into a frown. "It did. And I don't understand why." She seemed thoughtful.

I let out a small, nervous laugh. "Well, Natasha, it is a bullet, after all."

She shook her head. "No, I've been shot plenty of times before. No bullet ever felt like that."

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "That's just it. I don't know. I don't understand it. That bullet seemed three times worse than any bullet I've ever been shot with." She paused to reposition her leg, wincing a little as it was still sore. "And I've been shot with a lot of bullets in my time."

I nodded, smiled casually, and made my way out of the room and down the hall, thinking hard. The thought of Loki possessing a special line of guns made a mess out of my nerves. I started walking faster down the hall, looking down. I shook my head, trying to shake those thoughts out with it. I felt myself collide with someone.

"Wha-oh, it's you."

I looked up into the face of Tony and popped on a grin.

"Yep, it's me," I said.

"Well, Clint's freaking out. You need to talk to him."

I nodded. "Where is he?"

"In his training room."

"Clint?"

"Right here."

I looked up.

"Get out of the rafters. I need to talk to you."

He jumped down in one swift motion.

"How is Natasha?"

I nodded. "She's doing just fine."

He began to push past me toward the door.

"But," I called out quickly, "she needs rest. As in, uninterrupted rest."

"Oh...okay."

I perched myself on a ledge there in the training room.

"Clint, do you think Loki could produce a..um..superior line of guns and other weapons?"

Clint glanced at me, a puzzled expression on his face, then shrugged.

"I guess. The guy's pretty talented, Reni." He paused. "Why do you ask?"

I put on a casual, innocent face.

"Oh, just wondering."

He raised an eyebrow but returned to setting his bow as I left the room.

I closed the door behind me and walked down the hall a few paces, then took a seat against the wall with a sigh. What have we gotten ourselves into? I thought. I closed my eyes for a few minutes, searching my brain, just pondering. I opened my eyes to see Agent Hill standing right in front of me. I quickly straightened up.

"Agent Hill. Sorry," I said sheepishly.

She ignored my apology. "Fury has asked to see you and the rest of the team."

I nodded and set off for the meeting room, thoughts whirling. Upon entering, I saw all of the Avengers-minus Natasha-sitting there. I took a seat beside my parents.

"We lost Alexius," Fury said, reminding us of what had happened earlier that day. Agent Hill and I had been guarding Alexius as the rest of the team was moving Natasha into the van and getting ready to leave the area, but he had been slipped out from under our noses, it seemed.

Fury continued. "Someone clearly took him. He couldn't have escaped on his own. The question is, who took him?"

He let us think on that for a moment.

"Well, my first thought would be Loki," Tony remarked.

"Mine, too," Dad said.

Fury nodded.

"That's your first thought," Mom commented. "But what about the Ferox?"

Thor nodded.

"It's very likely that the Ferox are the ones that took him." He hesitated. "But at the same time, Loki is notorious for doing things like that. And if we had just seen him, he might have stuck around the area to get his son when your backs were turned."

I nodded.

"I think it was Loki," I said slowly.

Silence.

"But why are you so sure?" Tony asked.

I shrugged. "I just...I don't know. I just have this feeling that the Ferox aren't on earth yet."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Are you su-"

"You know, she's probably got a point."

Natasha stood in the doorway, leaning on one side. A fire leapt into Clint's eyes at her sight.

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked, pushing his black-rimmed glasses further up on his nose.

"It's something that, well, good agents develop. You just have a knack-a sense for things like that. You can feel it."

Mom nodded. "I get that feeling, too, when it's about something really important."

"So what are you saying, Nat?" Clint inquired.

"I'm saying that Reni's probably right. The Ferox aren't on earth yet."

Everyone was silent, thinking over this possible bit of information.

"If Loki and Alexius are the only ones we have to worry about right now, wouldn't it make sense to go ahead and take them out?" Dr. Banner seemed to be onto something. "I mean, if Loki wasn't around to conduct the Ferox attack, do you think they'd still try to go through with it?"

Everyone turned to Thor.

"I cannot say whether or not the Ferox would try to attack Midgard if my brother wasn't here to lead them," Thor stated in a matter-of-fact way, "but I will say this: if you kill my brother or my nephew, you will have me to reckon with."

An awkward silence ensued.

"Thor," Fury said finally, "Loki is your brother and Alexius is your nephew, but you know as well as we do that both of them have to be stopped."

"Of course I know that," Thor said, his voice rising, "and I don't object to capturing and perhaps imprisoning them, but if you harm them, you shall have me to dispute with."

Tony shook his head.

"Thor," Bruce said, frowning slightly, "if we catch them, they need to go in some dark, deep prison. There's no "perhaps" or "maybe" as far as this goes." He glanced at Fury. "I would be willing to respect your wishes and not seriously harm Loki or Alexius. And I'm sure the rest of the team would be willing to do so with me. But at the same time, desperate times call for desperate measures...and we're in desperate times."