At least all the Field units got to go home in the jets they arrived in. Raven still had to drive back to the outpost. To make things even more fun, someone had decided to bomb Raven's car. It was probably CROS's farewell gift to her. Raven just sighed, grabbed the bomb kit out of the trunk, and crawled under the vehicle to disarm it.
She didn't recognize the attachment mechanism, so she focused on disabling the explosive. The easiest way to do that was to disconnect the battery. It didn't matter if the bomb was triggered by a sensor or by a signal; either way, it couldn't detonate if it didn't have the power to process the signal. She found the lithium battery, pulled it from the master board, and stuffed it in her pocket. Problem solved.
Raven set her quiver in the passenger seat and started the car. "Initiate bomb sweep," she instructed the vehicle while she buckled and set the navigation to point her back towards the outpost.
A moment later, an automated voice informed her: "Bomb detected. Status: dormant. Threat level: low. Safe to drive. Do you want to submit a notice to your nearest SHIELD facility?"
"Yes," Raven answered. When she arrived at the outpost, they would have a team ready to remove the bomb and dispose of it safely.
"Notice submitted."
Raven pulled out of the parking garage much quicker than she had pulled in, although press crews lined the street on her way out.
Federal authorities had completely taken over the White House and most of the other buildings surrounding it. Once they had escorted the CROS agents out of the building, they went around to the other occupants, checking to see if there was any clear evidence that they were CROS agents that had hidden instead of fought. A few were rounded up, but almost everyone who had hidden when the lockdown started was innocent. For now, at least. Further investigation might reveal otherwise in the next week, but the feds had other priorities at the moment.
By the time Raven was driving away, the evacuation process had started. The politicians in the White House had calmed down from their initial panic, but the overwhelming presence of armed guards and property damage did not comfort them any. They were escorted off the premises and possibly to their homes or somewhere else to stay that night. No one had told them exactly what happened, but rumors were still flying everywhere. Not only through the building, but the internet had taken to analyzing what little information they had for answers. Raven could only hope that everyone was so concerned about the event that no one would focus on her.
When she pulled into the D.C. outpost, a squad of technicians waited for her. They directed her to an alternate garage than the main lot, parked exactly where they pointed her to, and stepped out of the car with her belongings immediately.
All but one of the technicians got to work immediately. The last technician approached Raven. "Your scan said the bomb was armed but inactive. That was you?"
"I pulled the battery before I got in," she explained. "I couldn't figure out how to remove the bomb, so it was the best I could do without accidentally setting it off."
"Good thing you did," the technician praised her. "It's hooked up to a motion detector. If you had exceeded a certain speed, it would have blown up on the road." They looked at the report for a moment longer before closing it and motioning out the door. "We caught a bit of the news report on your mission. Sounded like fun."
Eh, just a little, Raven thought. "Nothing like threatening a leader of the United States government," she muttered, which entertained the technician. "Need anything else from me?"
"Nope. We got this," they assured her. Raven took that as her cue to leave.
She checked into the outpost just long enough to let them know she was leaving again. She was directed back out to the landing strip, found her jet, and buckled in. She started the takeoff procedure yet again and waited for clearance to fly, then left with only the destruction at the White House to suggest she had been there in the first place. It was just past noon.
Once she was into a SHIELD airlane, Raven finally sat back in her seat and relaxed. Grabbing the comm pack, she replaced her earpiece and her receiver before closing it and putting everything back in the cabinet she had found it in. She was very tempted to nap on the way home, but she had to stay awake since she was the only one on the jet.
Luckily, someone called her. It wasn't the best thing to deal with, but at least it would keep her from dozing off. Raven checked the caller's identification. Fury.
She answered it. "Sir?"
"You still alive?"
"For now. Give it a day or two, and we'll see."
"Hilarious," Fury groaned, and Raven smirked. She had to poke fun sometimes. "Where are you?"
"Took off about ten, fifteen minutes ago. It'll be an hour or so before I get back to headquarters."
"Status on CROS?"
"We'll probably have escapees to round up, but they got the message. Everyone stood down once Turner was captured."
"Good. Once you touch down, come up to my office."
"Yes, sir."
He ended the call. Raven wondered what the office meeting was for but didn't bother to ask. Apparently, it wasn't important information.
With nothing better to do, Raven checked her phone for anything that had come in while she had been busy. The first thing she noticed was ten texts from Peter:
'You know, when you said you needed help tracking the weapon dealers, this isn't what I was thinking'
'Dude, the news is all over this. Every channel is talking about it'
'Who are those guys coming out?'
'Aaannnd now the police are carting them off. Was there a coup or something?'
'OH SHIT YOU'RE THERE'
'You probably have your phone off, don't you?'
'Shit'
'Sorry'
'Call me when you're done, tho'
'Suit looks great by the way'
Raven shook her head and called him. He picked up on the second ring.
"Hey! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Parker," she assured him, laughing slightly. "Congratulations, by the way. You might have just saved the President from being assassinated."
"Oh, shit, really? Are you good?"
"A little worse for wear, but I'll live." She glanced down at her stomach. "Maybe a few welts. Shuri's suit doesn't have a ton of padding."
"Huh. She's never mentioned welts with her suits."
"Most of the people she makes suits for have enhanced metabolism, remember? I'm just a regular human. We get welts."
"Right, right. Forgot about that."
"It's fine. I'll ask her for more padding. I'm sure she can throw something together." Raven gazed out the windshield. "How's everything look from the outside?"
"Oh, people are losing their minds. MJ's been texting me nonstop for the past hour, and every news station in the country is giving live updates. We saw you on the roof earlier."
"Yeah, you mentioned that. I had to drag a sniper off there, and I couldn't avoid the helicopter. I'm just hoping everyone will forget about it once they hear what happened."
"What did happen?"
"I can't tell you that. Come on, Parker."
He groaned into the speaker. "What's the point in having your number if you can't tell me the good stuff?"
"No idea. You tell me."
Peter didn't like that answer. She smirked but went on: "Thanks again for giving me that call. I do owe you a favor."
"Just not telling me what that was?"
She rolled her eyes. "Look, even if I wanted to, why would you waste a favor on that when you'll find out in a day or two anyway?"
"FIIIINE. I'll hold you to it."
"Sure thing," she promised.
"So, where are you now?"
"Heading back, for now. Other people are taking care of the White House," she explained. "There will be a mess to clean up afterward, I'm sure. I'll probably get roped into that too. Other than that, hopefully, this will all settle down."
"Until the next mission?"
"Yep. Onto the next thing."
"Well, glad you're doing okay. Just wanted to make sure you're alive."
"Appreciate it. What about you? Is work going okay?"
"Yeah, it's fine. I'm lookin- well, it's..."
"Long story?"
"Yeah. I'll explain later, but it's just an idea for now."
"Fair enough. Stay out of trouble."
"You too."
"Not gonna happen."
"Yeah, I figured."
Raven ended the call and, after a moment of thinking, opened her watch communications. She sent a quick message to Shuri: 'Tested the gear today. Everything worked great, and you should have lots of data to work with. Any chance I can get some extra padding on the next upgrade?'
Knowing the Princess would reply when she was awake, she forgot about it for the time being. That was one of the difficulties of having a fellow Avenger on the other side of the planet. Time zones were somewhat difficult to deal with.
As the clouds flew past her, Raven couldn't help but be somewhat disturbed by Peter's warning: she had made her television debut. It wasn't the press she was afraid of; it was the attention. The entire reason for hiding for five years had been to lay low and stay off of people's radar. It had been drilled into her at a young age: she had to remain hidden. Granted, she had probably been at the Academy long enough for people to forget she existed. Still, it didn't help that every muscle in her body was tensing up at the thought of someone connecting the dots about her identity.
She had to trust that Turner's scandal would draw attention away from her presence at the White House, and she had to hope that anyone who had been looking for her five years ago wouldn't recognize her now. If they did, the next few months were going to get interesting.
Then again, if Fury's plan to make Raven an Avenger worked, then she wouldn't be able to avoid attention. Dealing with the press would become a regular chore, and looking over her shoulder would become a much more necessary practice. It was easy to slip past people now: no one looked twice at a teenage girl in a hoodie. A SHIELD agent with a bow, though? People paid attention to that.
Not just people outside, either. SHIELD agents knew who Clint was better than the world did. People already knew Raven was Natasha's student, which was fine because Natasha was still alive. Clint wasn't, and any association with him painted a giant target on her back. People like her and Natasha (and Fury, of course) were the only ones who really knew anything about the late assassin.
She was going to have to get used to being recognized. It seemed that was in her job description now, for better or worse.