ROARA
I sat at the table, Loki across from me, his feet resting on another chair reading a book. My stuff was all packed and ready to go.
"You're not coming with me, are you." It was a statement, not a question.
He looked up from his book, his finger resting on the page to keep his place. "No." He replied.
"Okay."
"Oh don't tell me you're upset about that, you've spent this entire time threatening to behead me." His book vanished from his hands and he took his feet off the chair, swivelling in his seat to look at me properly.
"No, I still hate you." I grumbled.
He mocked hurt. "I thought it was a strong dislike?"
"Do you want me to list the reasons? Starting with leaving me for 400 years and not telling me I was immortal, and then finishing with not telling me I could literally spontaneously combust?"
"I'm pretty sure you just exhausted the list."
"Whatever."
He sighed. "You'll be coming back. This is just temporary."
"Right."
"I meant to say, back there, you..."
I lowered my chin and raised my eyebrows. "I?"
He groaned. "You... You fought in a way that even I didn't know you could. You should be proud. You've mastered your abilities."
"I don't feel like I've mastered them. Nowhere near. I have a long way to go. It took you hundreds of years to do what you can do today, and even you are getting stronger all the time."
He leant forwards, his voice low. "Are you saying I need improvement?"
I laughed at his expression, "Oh my god, you really are so up yourself! Pull your head out of your backside! We all improve all the time. Maybe your personality has no growth, but just today I saw you use your magic in ways you couldn't four hundred years ago. Your teleportation is sleeker, the detail in your projections is more accurate, your telekinesis is stronger. You've always been good, but you get better at things without even realising it. Everyone does Loki. You're not special."
His face went from arrogant to stone cold in the blink of an eye, his jaw set, his lips in a straight line.
"What?" I asked. He stayed silent and unmoving. I screwed up a post-it note from the file in front of me and threw it at him. Instead of bouncing off him and back onto the table, it just went right through. "Ah." I said. "So you're not even here for the last hour before I'm leaving? Okay, I get it."
He shrugged, and his projection vanished. I slammed a fist into the table with a groan. "Shit." I muttered, seeing the small dent I'd made. I kept forgetting I could do that. "I really fucking hate that guy."
"Excuse me?" I whipped around. Alina was stood in the doorway with the new girl Wanda, Natasha, and the guy Nat had referred to as Barton. I'd seen him on the news back when Loki had invaded New York.
"Loki's being... Loki." I explained.
"Did you expect anything else?" Barton said sitting beside me, as Nat and Alina went to make coffee and Wanda sat across from us.
"No." I replied bitterly. "I'm Roara Woodson by the way." I held out a hand.
"Yes, I believe we met earlier today. Clint Barton." He shook my hand.
"You're Hawkeye right?"
"That's me."
"Can I see your bow sometime?" I asked.
He scrunched his face a little in confusion. "Sure. Why?"
"I've done some archery in my time. I'll be nowhere near as good as you, but I used to be decent." I shrugged. "I've mentioned before, but it used to be a pretty popular weapon. I'm sad they went out of style."
He looked around the room, "Why didn't you guys tell me she was cool?"
"We did." Wanda replied in a tired voice.
My phone began buzzing on the table. "Huh. Nick Fury's calling me."
"Answer it." Nat said as she poured out a cup of coffee.
I scrunched my face up. "I don't feel like talking to him."
"She really would get on with Peter." Wanda sighed.
"Again who is this Peter?"
Alina reached over my shoulder and grabbed my phone. "Hello? No I realise I'm not Roara. Yes we've locked her up. Yes we have agents constantly watching her live feed." She looked around the room. "Wanda, Natasha, Clint and Roara. Mmhmmm." She held her hand over the receiver so that Fury couldn't hear. "Ro, where's Loki?" She whispered.
"I dunno, his room? He was projecting himself in here so." I shrugged.
"We don't know." She said into the phone, before turning to look at everyone. "Who wants to check where he is?"
"Not me." Barton said.
I groaned. "I am not doing that, I am sick of him."
Alina turned to Wanda. "Wanda?"
"Fine." She got up. "If he's not in his room, I'm not going to go around this entire building." She left.
Ali returned to the phone call. "Wanda's gone to look. Yeah. Oh now? Okay. Does that mean? Yep." She turned to me, "The others are coming back earlier than expected so you have to leave."
"Now?"
"Now." She confirmed.
"When will I get to meet them? I hate being a secret."
Nat passed me a tea in a travel mug. "I know you don't actually like coffee." She said with a wink.
"Cheers." I replied, taking a sip.
"Fury, she's asking when she'll get to meet the others. Uh huh. Yeah I know! Okay, fine. No that's - God, okay." She sighed. "Roara he says when the time's right. Cap'll meet you at the new location."
"Why are they coming back early?" Wanda asked.
Alina shrugged. "Wanda wants to know why they're coming back early. Okay, fine." She set the phone on the table and clicked speakerphone.
"I AM NOT AN FAQ PAGE PEOPLE!" Fury's voice boomed through the speakers. His name really suited him. "YOU WILL KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!"
"For the record," Barton said, "I didn't ask any questions."
"I DO NOT CARE!" My phone vibrated from the noise that was coming out of it. "ROARA GET YOUR SHIT AND GET TO THE HELIPAD! I'LL KNOW IF YOU'RE LATE BECAUSE I'M IN THE HELICOPTER. NOW MOVE IT!" The call ended.
"He's in a good mood." I muttered.
"He'll be in an even better one if you're late." Alina reminded me.
I cursed under my breath as I grabbed my tea and went to get my stuff by the door. "Well, I suppose I'll be seeing you round?"
"I'm a phone call away." Ali promised, giving me a quick hug.
Clint nodded at me. "Stay safe firehands."
"Thanks Robin Hood."
Clint closed his eyes and groaned. "Why do people keep calling me that."
"Wait who else has called you that?"
Nat came up and gave me a big squeeze. "We'll tell Wanda you said bye."
"Thanks guys." I forced a smile and took my backpack up to the roof.
It was windy and the chopper was already there and ready to go. Fury was waiting for me, arms folded, looking incredibly pissed and impressive with his long coat swaying in the wind.
"You're late." Fury said.
"I literally came immediately."
"Well that wasn't fast enough, now get in."
Since we were only going to upstate New York, it didn't take very long to get there. It was a huge compound, sprawling over a few hundred acres of land.
"It was one of Howard Stark's old facilities." Fury explained to me through the headphones, as I stared in awe at the size of it. "Lots of area for you to practice. You'll need it with your new skill."
Why had I thought he wouldn't have heard about my ability to manipulate fire yet? Of course he'd know. He was Nick fucking Fury.
"So I don't accidentally burn down a wall?"
"So that if you get angry you don't blast half of Manhattan to bits." He corrected.
I had to agree. "Fair enough."
Once we landed I followed Fury through a series of glass corridors to the main room.
"STEVE!" I shouted and ran up to him, flinging my arms around him.
"Roara I was not expecting that." He grunted from the force of me, putting his arms around me and hugging me hard.
"I have had the worst week. I will never take you for granted again. Loki was driving me insane Steve, in-fucking-sane-" I let go and took a step back, taking him in. He was still in his suit, dirty and scraped. "What the fuck happened?" I asked.
"We got ambushed. We managed to escape but they got Bucky." His expression was grim, his eyes were red. Had he been crying?
"Wait... who's Bucky?" I asked.
"You'd know him as the Winter Soldier." Steve sighed, sitting down at the table.
"He was on the news..." I sat down beside him.
"James Buchanan Barnes." Fury informed me. "Also known as Bucky, or the Winter Solider."
Steve put his head in his hands and explained. "He's my... my friend. My closest and oldest friend. He was taken by Hydra a while back, went through... a lot."
"And... he got taken again." I realised aloud.
Head still in his hands, Steve managed a nod.
"Well now my week looks almost fun." I put my hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay." I assured him.
He looked up at me. "You don't know that."
"Yes. I do. We've got a leader of the Ascendency in our custody, Tony's setting up a virus to hack them, you're the Avengers! We will get him back." I pulled him into a hug, which felt odd because I was so tiny compared to him. But even big guys needed to be looked after. He smelt like pinewood and coffee. "We've got his back," I whispered. "I promise."
My phone rang, making both of us jump. "Jesus christ," I moaned, "again?" I checked the ID.
"It's Nat." Steve said. "You better take it."
I answered the phone "Hello?"
From behind me I heard Fury mutter, "Next time I need to contact that kid I'm stealing Romanoff's phone."
"Roara, is that you?" It was Barton.
"Yes it's me, what happened to-"
"We need you back here."
"Oh fuck, I just arrived! Look I'm going to have to call you back, Steve's not in a good-"
"Axel's escaped."
"Oh fuck."
"And Loki's gone."
"OH FUCK!"