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chapter four

A FRIEND OF FURY

"WHAT HAPPENED TO it? We bypassed the battery, it should still be blinking." Raven's brows furrowed at the object as her arms crossed over her chest. Nat and Steve gave her a glance, then gave one to each other. It had been a week and a half since Raven had found out the baby hadn't made it and everyone knew. She was tired of everyone walking on eggshells around her and treating her like she was helpless. It had been over a week; she got through the miscarriage, she cried, she grieved, and now it was time to get back to work. There was no time for personal issues right now, no matter how much Steve assured her to relax and take a breather from everything.

"Stop giving me that look," she snapped. "We all know what happened and I don't want to think about it anymore, so can we please just figure out why the damn thing isn't blinking?" The words were rushed out and harsh, making Natasha clear her throat and face back towards the pager.

   Rhodey and Banner nodded silently as all stood beside one another, their eyes staring down the mysterious pager.

"We did bypass the battery and connect it to an external power source. I think whoever was on the other end of that thing might've stopped the signal from their side," Nat proposed.

   "Reboot it. Send the signal again," Steve said.

   Bruce shook his head. "We don't even know what this is."

   "Fury did," Natasha pointed out. "Just do it, please. Tell me the second you get a signal. I wanna know who's on the other end of that thing." The blonde turned on her heel to walk away, but froze in her tracks, making the others turn to see why she did so.

   Carol Danvers stood in a red and blue suit with a gold star in the center, her gaze set on Natasha with a hard glare. "Where's Fury?"

   The group quickly took on strong stances, readying themselves for if the stranger were to attack.

   "Who are you?" Raven spoke up, not bothering to answer her question. Carol cocked her head to the side softly, nonchalantly sizing up the woman. She didn't answer, only making Nix's jaw tick in annoyance. "Who are you?" she repeated harshly, a purple aura beginning to emerge from her clenched palms. Carol's eyes flickered to them, then back to Raven's face.

"Carol Danvers. I'm a friend of Fury," she said stiffly. "Now where is he?"

Raven reluctantly let her power slip away and let the aura fade, silently deciding the girl wasn't a threat to them—not yet, at least. She gave the others a nod, letting them know they could back down for now.

"He was snapped away with the rest of half the universe," Steve informed, his arms crossing over his chest. "Why are you here?"

   "I'm guessing Fury paged before he was 'snapped away,'" she quoted. "I gave him that in 1995 before I left." Carol gestured to the modified pager. "Told him to only use it for emergencies." At that, Raven let out a snort, earning a look from everyone.

   "Yeah, I think this classifies," she remarked, "but why did he page you?"

The ex-pilot let a smirk grace her face as she focused her power into her fist, raised it, and sent a blast to the table that sat nearby, blowing the piece of furniture into shards. Raven raised an eyebrow at the action, while some of the others jumped a bit in surprise. The Nix woman hummed in amusement before stepping forward and sticking out a hand for Carol to shake. With a squint of her eyes and the smirk still on her face, the blonde shook her hand.

   "Raven Nix, nice to meet you." Raven's eyes shimmered with a lavender color as she shook Danvers' hand. The latter could sense a strong power within Raven and took the small glow of her eyes as a silent warning. I'm trusting you to be who you say you are, the action said, don't break my trust or we'll have a problem. But to anyone outside the duo's interaction, it looked like an everyday introduction to someone new.

Bruce watched the two women with furrowed brows. "What—what just happened?" he whispered, nudging Rhodey.

The man nearly snorted as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Out of everyone here, you'd think I'd know?"

[STILL ALIVE]

"And that's—that's how we wound up here. Every minute, that number gets bigger and bigger. I'm talking highly valued individuals: scientists, agents, world leaders, heroes. With people that protect and lead different countries gone, it's gonna be a grab for power with whoever's left; they're panicking." Raven wrung her hands together as she proposed the worst-case scenario to the others in the room. "We need to fix this as soon as possible."

"We need Tony," Bruce muttered, the words leaving his mouth loud enough for the others to raise their heads and look at the man.

Steve's chest tightened at the mention of the name and he visibly stiffened. Everyone could feel the sudden uneasiness in the room, even Carol, but no one dared to comment on it in that moment.

Natasha cleared her throat. "I agree, but we still have no idea where he is." She chewed the inside of her cheek and tried to think of a way they could find the man in a timely manner. "Pepper said he left on that ship that showed up in New York. Where was it going?"

   "It was going back to Thanos. The entire reason the ship was there was because those guys were sent to get the Time Stone from Doctor Strange," Bruce informed.

   "Who's Doctor Strange?" Steve questioned, resting his elbows on his knees as he sat down on the couch.

   "I-I'm not completely sure. He's a wizard from Manhattan, I think?" Bruce shrugged. "But wherever the ship was going, that's probably where Tony went."

Carol crossed her arms over her chest and stepped closer to the group. If they felt like they needed Tony to fix this, then she was more than willing to bring the man back to Earth. She knew they'd be unsure to accept her help, but she also knew that she was the best equipped one to do so. "I can find him."