Chased by the shadows

22

"I'm gonna kill him." She clenched her fists. The thoughts in her head where no longer a mess. She was thinking clearly. Her name was Nora Parker. She was furious.

"You can't go after him," Peter told her. "You're gonna get yourself killed."

She ignored him and continued; "He took my childhood away from me. He stole me and used me like a toy." She raised her voice. "He took you away from me. He took away our parents forever. He took away my whole life!"

She covered her face and burst into tears, crying quietly. She had been strong for too long, and now she couldn't hold it in anymore. So much had happened in a very short amount of time, it was too much. After a while the crying turned into sobbing and she wiped away the tears and took a deep breath. She had to end this fight, then she could rest.

"Where's Fury?"

Peter sighed. "I don't know."

Nora left the room and walked down the corridor. Her mind felt focused for the first time in years. She searched the building until she found Nick Fury in another room.

"I need a sword," she said.

He turned around as if he hadn't heard her coming. "Why?"

"I need a weapon."

"Isn't a gun better?"

"I'm good with swords," Nora said. "Plus, they are much funnier to play with."

Fury frowned a little and nodded. "I'll see what I can find." He headed to the door. "Follow me." They walked to the end of the south corridor.

"You know you're very quiet when you're walking?"

"Yeah." Nora shrugged. "Old habit, I guess. I've always felt like I kind of, need to be invisible. Life had worked out best that way."

They stopped outside a big metal door. Fury took out a card and scanned it on the screen beside the door. A smaller screen appeared and he pressed his thumb against it. The doors opened and they stepped into an elevator that took them down under the ground. Their footsteps echoed when they walked down yet another corridor filled with doors on the sides. Fury opened one of the doors which led into a big room full of boxes.

"We've got a bunch of stuff from different occasions gathered here," he told her. "It's mostly just leftovers from fights, especially outer earth such. Maybe you can find anything of use here."

Nora opened the lids of a bunch of boxes. There was loads of weird stuff she had no idea what they where for. She picked up a few sword looking things and, one by one, felt their weight and tried swinging them. She wanted to find the perfect one. After the seventh box she picked up a black case with a long thorn of roses carved on the side of it. A handle in silver with a beautiful gem in a deep shade of purple at the edge peaked up from it. Nora grabbed the handle and dragged out the sword. It had a thin, sharp blade. The tip of the edge was curved the slightest bit backwards. Her fingers grabbed the handle perfectly with the lines that led around it, from the end of the blade where they created a torn, twisting around the sword, and around the gem at the edge. She tried swinging it to the sides, spun and dodged a box. She threw it up in the air so it spun around and catched it again.

"Found one," she told Fury.

They left the room and took the elevator up to ground level again. Nora had attached the sword case on her belt. It bounced lightly against her thigh when she walked. Something caught her attention from outside the window.

"Hey, did you see that?" She stopped walking. Fury did the same.

"What?"

"There." She pointed. "I think I saw a person out there. Only for a second, but they were running into the bushes over there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Uhm, almost. I think. No, I don't know. Maybe it was a bird or something." She kept staring at the bushes. "No, there must've been a person." She gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

"We should probably investi- what?" Fury looked at her.

"Shit, shit, shit," she repeated while running up to the window. She turned around to Fury again. "I totally forgot, they are planning an attack! They sent me out first!"

"We need to alarm everyone," Fury said.

A man in tuxedo skidded around the corner and ran up to them. "Sir, it seems like we have an emergency. We think someone is attacking us."