I'll MEET YOU AT THE END OF THE LINE • MARVEL AVENGERS

1:3

B O O K       O N E
C H A P T E R      T H R E E

According To Columbus by A Skylit Drive

ADRIENNE BARTON

In all honesty, Adrienne was freaking out.
 Naturally, she was worried about her life while she waited around a corner for orders. How on earth did anyone expect her to fight or even look intimidating? Adrienne was wearing clothes that did not accentuate any part of her body; whatever they did find for her to wear, felt worse than the clothes she wore before. But that was sort of the point because Adrienne preferred to wear baggy clothes which made her feel the most comfortable. The outfit she wore was tight and made it hard to breathe; so that must have been how Natasha felt. Natasha probably didn't mind it though because there wasn't much to snatch and contain.
But Fury wanted to throw Adrienne into action and for what? Adrienne didn't know what she was doing.
While Steve was overseeing the front of the building where some villainous person was supposed to be, he was just standing around doing nothing. Unlike Adrienne, she watched closely as minions -as she would call them- were taking guards out, so she looked even harder to make sure what she was seeing was correct before reporting it. As for Adrienne, she was an assistant, not a spy. Adrienne didn't have a single clue as to how to start fighting bad guys. It wasn't like anyone bothered to clue her in either.
  Why was she really going along with it? She should have been able to go home at any point, right? No! Because Adrienne wasn't even in the same country anymore, she was in a different part of the world, with no passport, and no ID. She was there and she had no one to take her home because there was no one willing to. Adrienne should have said screw it and walked away, start a whole new life... wherever they were. She was sure she could pick up a new language, it couldn't be that difficult to learn. It couldn't be difficult to change everything about her and become someone she'd actually enjoyed seeing when she looked in the mirror. But that seemed to be as unrealistic as the thought she could be any good at fighting bad guys alongside Captain America. She was still on the fence about why the hell anyone was allowing her to do this.

Adrienne sighed before it was time to go. She knew it wouldn't be something she could just do overnight. She had to start somewhere. Taking a moment, Adrienne stared down at her hands -which were covered by black leather gloves- and they were shaking with nerves, violently. Adrienne didn't say anything in fear that someone could hear her and by then, the man being obvious with his outfit and slick black hair didn't fool anyone, especially Adrienne as he began to make his grand entrance. She read a lot of books to distract her from using her powers over the span of two decades, and every single one she read told Adrienne to never trust the villain. She as a person would have fallen into his trap immediately. He was already in the building trying to get what he came for. He was more of a distraction than anything else because the people doing all of the work were the ones breaking into the vault when Adrienne decided to round a different corner.
 When rounding said corner, like the scaredy-cat she was, Adrienne froze. Which should have been a natural response since she had no clue as to what she was doing. Adrienne mentioned it again, so everyone understood how serious she was. And in the back of her mind, deep down, she knew that Fury would have never sent her out there knowing she didn't have a lick of training, he knew she could handle herself. But she didn't, she couldn't. She just had to believe she was able to. Adrienne thought he wanted to see if she did have some sort of abilities and to see if they were worth keeping an eye on. He was pushing her, so Adrienne had to push back. Adrienne didn't think it was worth any attention but that was just her. She couldn't have been more wrong. See, Adrienne wasn't cut out for what Fury wanted her to do. She stopped abruptly, and the first person who snapped their head in her direction was her uncle, and the first thing Adrienne noticed about him was his eyes. Adrienne's eyes were horrible, but she could still tell they weren't his natural hue. His eyes were blue but not glowing like they were, and the look he gave Adrienne was a dead look. It was like he didn't know who she was, or he did but didn't give a rat's ass. Which made Adrienne snap out of the blank stare she gave off and start running in the opposite direction while he finished trying to get into the vault. The only reason Adrienne ran away was that no matter what was happening to her uncle, she didn't want him getting hurt. Adrienne didn't want him getting hurt because of her specifically. It was only a couple of seconds after when Clint sent three other men after her and immediately, they began shooting in Adrienne's direction. Why not a single bullet hit her was beyond her comprehension. Maybe they were lousy henchman, but if given the chance and if it was Clint who needed to hit her, he wouldn't miss. She should have been grateful.
Steve noticed what Adrienne was doing and spoke into his earpiece quickly before she could get a breath out. Adrienne couldn't believe she was running away while bad guys were shooting at her, she shouldn't have been in that situation at all. That should have gotten her blood pumping, but it was too busy pumping in her ears to notice. She wasn't cut out for it and yet Fury sent her out there knowing her ass was going to run away. Adrienne was annoying, but truth be told, any sane person would have the same reaction as she did. It was true. And to top it off, Steve wasn't helping her. He disappeared as soon as screaming came from inside, and immediately she panicked. Not the panic of not getting a job she applied for, the panic Adrienne felt was the type to destroy expensive buildings. Like the one she was running from. She closed her eyes and felt the concrete rise behind her easily. Turning around, the ground began to crack, and bodies were being tossed from side to side, most likely from jumping out of the way so no one fell in. Natasha witnessed it, with eyes wide and mouth closed tight, she did not expect it was something Adrienne was trying to avoid entirely. Before anyone came sailing out of the building, the man wearing a suit with slick black hair had then transformed from formal wear to something otherworldly. Naturally, a villain would come to conquer a planet that wasn't all that. He wanted what no one else wanted to bother with. Adrienne didn't know that at the time, but it seemed to have been the case. No one around there, or anywhere, dressed as he did. Or they did, they just didn't look ominous while doing it.
    Steve stared hard at Adrienne while she tried to gather why she had done it, and the only explanation Adrienne had was because she happened to be terrified, which was something she didn't get to be so often, or at all really. It had to be the man with the reindeer horns. He truly looked like a reindeer with the headpiece he was wearing but one thing for sure; green was definitely his color.
"Barton, look alive!" Natasha yelled into Adrienne's earpiece, which made her think someone was coming up from behind, so she ducked down just as someone swung their fist and missed. At first, Adrienne thought Natasha was talking about her uncle until Adrienne stood up straight again, and saw he was nowhere to be found. Adrienne could have run but did the next logical thing by kicking her assailant away by bringing up her shoe and planting it in the center of his chest. She should have been celebrating the move, instead, there was a giant group of people being forced to kneel for a man they knew nothing about. It gave off neglected energy and that was how all villain stories were created. Adrienne didn't need to be told she was right. Once another gentleman stood up to oppose the villain, the villain tried to set an example out of him.       Before he could use what looked like a scepter, to use its power on the poor old man, Captain America came into play by throwing his shield. Knocking the villain off balance, and as much as Adrienne wanted to react to him getting hit, she still wanted to get the hell out of dodge.
 She panicked for the second time and went after Clint. It was too much to take in, and Adrienne didn't expect any of it, she was hoping to stop her uncle from doing something stupid and get him back on the ship so someone could help him, so she could take her helpful ass home. Adrienne needed any reason to go home. She and Clint could have a talk when he was back to normal at any point in time after everything settled. She didn't care if she didn't have a job to go back to, she was sure she could find something else. Adrienne was twenty-six years old; it wasn't hard to get a new job. She didn't care if it was amazing to work for someone like Steve and Stark-even if he was horrible- Adrienne just wasn't okay with destroying property. The entire time she was expecting to stay on the ship, and the literal fact she was thrown into the line of fire, seemed like fiction. That part wasn't Adrienne. That part of her she was trying to keep under control, so she didn't bring things like her little stunt, to anyone's attention. That was probably what Fury expected from her too. Pull it out of her, make Adrienne realize she enjoyed it, and change her mind about helping out. Adrienne was destructive, and not helpful. So, she would eventually decline. She wouldn't enjoy this; all she would think about was how many people were going to hate her because of this. She could say with absolute certainty she would be hated by the majority of the world. Adrienne was a liability no matter how anyone spun it. People will be terrified of what they don't understand. Adrienne couldn't see the positives of her powers, she will always see the negative aspect because that's what it was, negative. There was nothing good about uprooting whatever the souls of this world created. There was nothing good about destroying what others spent so long to accomplish. Nothing good could ever come from Adrienne accepting who she was, she was always meant to hide this part. Conceal it for hers, and everyone's safety. It was always better this way.
By the time Adrienne searched for Clint again, he was already gone with whatever was missing from the vault. It was probably why 'Reindeer Man' wasn't attacking anyone else, he was simply being a distraction. And if that didn't make matters worse, she could hear a theme song of some sort blaring through her earpiece, and literally seconds after that, a red ball of light came flying through the night sky. It was Adrienne's boss, and although he couldn't see her, it didn't mean he wasn't going to see her after his grand entrance. He was going to want to know why in the hell Adrienne decided to go along with Natasha knowing she had a job back at Stark Industries, and Adrienne's answer to that would be that she was taken against her will. Technically she was tricked but she could explain that once she had the chance. Adrienne had been trying her darndest to get back home and no one would take her, so what else was she to do? She had the best excuses. It was just the matter of whether or not Stark wanted to hear her state her case.
      He knocked himself into Reindeer Man and stopped him from doing any more harm to Steve. He would probably rub that in his face later considering the type of person Stark was. He didn't do it but instead, they just went up against him together. After about a minute, Reindeer Man surrendered while never saying a word. That was nice compared to Adrienne running for her life when several men dressed like one another chased her out of the long hall-like alley, all the while Stark and Steve were getting Reindeer Man ready to board the plane as a prisoner. All in a matter of ten minutes. Adrienne would have to learn his name eventually. She didn't have time to ask since she was still being chased!
"Uh, can I have a little help over here!" She ran like hell. Steve and Stark took a quick look back over their shoulders, but Stark took a double take. Stark, completely unaware of why Adrienne was there, squinted his eyes and watched her carefully. If she was trying to remain unseen, she did a horrible job at it. Adrienne would worry about that if she wasn't trying to focus on the fact she was running out of breath and was bound to stop short as no one was helping her!
"Is that Barton?" Stark turned and lowered his eyebrows knowing no one was going to see him make the face. Instead of either of them helping Adrienne, they just stood there and watched. So, Adrienne was going to have to handle it herself when she honestly didn't want to. She wanted to make it clear she had to protect herself and what she was about to do was out of peer pressure and force, so she turned abruptly and curled up her fingers, bringing car-sized concrete and gravel up around the men chasing her, allowing Adrienne to ruin the infrastructure. They fell in, and in one quick swoop of her arm, she covered them up, killing them instantly. Adrienne didn't want that on her conscience just by the look on her face, six seconds after it happened. When she turned to where the men could see her, Adrienne's mouth was slightly ajar while she reacted to her own abilities and what damage she caused. It finally sunk in that people were watching. She hadn't used her powers since she was like, eleven. Adrienne didn't know she was able to do that with so little effort. And surprising herself was not on the agenda. Everyone could see it on her features while stretching out her fingers and closing her hand into a fist again. Stark noticed her movement immediately.
   The villain of the moment raised his eyebrows while clearly being impressed. His expression didn't faze Adrienne, though. She started hyperventilating, realizing what she had done. She didn't know how to process killing anyone because no one had ever taught her how to, she never had the thought of killing anyone just because she was scared. It was worse when she realized she wasn't seeing her uncle anywhere. Adrienne didn't know what to do, and she felt like she didn't do anything to help him but was just making a mess of things. Which was all the more reason Adrienne wanted to get as far away from everyone, as quickly as possible. Curl into the ball she created for moments such as ones like the one she was having, with tear-filled eyes. She killed people and didn't even get her uncle back. Adrienne needed some air, and obviously, the air she was already breathing in wasn't enough. She couldn't healthily process any of it, and no one could expect her to know how.