Ana placed the large bowl of grapes onto the table in the kitchen. Natasha had practically carried a sleeping Ana inside last night after she had passed out on the roof. That was probably the reason she woke up on the couch in one of the rooms the Avengers commonly hung out in.
"You're up late." Steve comments as he walks into the kitchen. Even though to the patriot getting up late meant the sun was up before you, he was right. She had slept into the afternoon.
"And slightly hungover." Ana replies slowly as she pours herself a glass of water, reaching for the pain killers Tony always kept stocked for situations like hers. "But anyways, what's up?" Ana crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the counter, Steve doing the same on the other side of the kitchen.
"We've found another base. It's in Sokovia."
"Where the hell is Sokovia?" Ana asks before Steve could go any further.
"Eastern Europe." Steve says and Ana nods, getting an idea in her head of where she'll be going today. "Dr. Banner said he found some-"
"Loki's scepter?" Ana asks hopefully, cutting Steve off from whatever sciency stuff he was about to say.
"Yeah, pretty much. That's about all I got from his explanation." Steve admits and the two share a laugh, beginning the walk to the meeting room.
"And here I thought I'd get to stay in bed all day." Ana smirks as she walks into the meeting room, seeing everyone on the team there already.
"Cool it, Banana." Tony teases. Banana was a nickname he gave her when she was thirteen, he thought it was clever because it rhymes with her name. That and she dyed her hair yellow for a few months, a thought so cringeworthy she pushed it far, far back in her mind. It was supposed to be blonde, but never trust dollar store hair dye on sale for half off. "We're trying to be professional here."
"Is that what we're doing? Because all we were just talking about how if Ana got here any slower you were going to send Dorothy to get her." Natasha smirks as she exposes Tony.
"Dorothy?" Steve and Ana ask at the same time.
"Glad you asked." Tony says as he pushed the button, like he did yesterday.
"Oh no. No, no, no." Ana says cautiously as she whips around in a circle, waiting painfully long for the suit to come busting out of nowhere. It's not that she didn't like Tony's inventions, it's just that she doesn't like her brother having that much control over her. It made her nervous.
"What's going on?" Steve asks as he follows Ana's gaze as it rapidly shoots around the room, anxious for something bad to happen. Then Ana saw it, the baby blue pieces of metal flying straight at her, coming in the opened door. Ana took a few steps back, before bumping into the front of Thor. The Asgardian demigod waited patiently for something bad to happen.
"Stark, Lady Ana seems afraid." Thor's voice boomed throughout the room. At this, Ana let out a scoff, waving her hand dismissively.
"What? Me? Afraid? Pfft, nice try big guy but-" Ana defends herself, being cut off by her own startled yelp as the arm pieces of 'Dorothy' attached themselves, quickly entrapping Ana.
"You know, if you make me a metal prison you could've at least let me name it." Ana says as she tries to find a way out of her suit.
"I'm sorry, Miss Stark. Would you like to change my name?" An automatic female voice, similar to Jarvis', rang through Ana's ears causing her to jump backwards. She definitely wasn't expecting that.
"Dorothy?" Ana questions and Tony nods, smirking as he admired his work. He had created a new suit and AI to keep his baby sister safe. "Are you Jarvis' girlfriend? Is that even possible?"
"I am an artificial intelligence, like Jarvis. Though our only connections are our creator and purpose, to keep you safe." Dorothy says clearly.
"Who are you talking to, Ana?" Steve asks, curiosity getting the best of him. He must not have been able to hear the voice like Ana. Tony decides he's had his fun, and releases Ana. The suit now puts itself together next to Ana, and she takes a careful step away.
"My new AI, Dorothy. Now, are we going to go kick some HYDRA butt?"
❉❉❉
When Ana said they were going to kick some butt, she meant it. This team was working together better than they ever had before, Tony and Thor flying above, the Hulk running and destroying every enemy he saw, Steve riding his famous motorcycle, and Natasha driving while Clint shot arrows and Ana used the large machine gun located on top to get whoever crossed her path. All in all, they looked pretty badass.
"Shit!" Tony yells as he hits a barrier around the base.
Language!" Steve scolds, earning a very large laugh from Ana as she gleefully killed more HYDRA agents. She had no remorse for them, they were awful people. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken." Jarvis informs the group, his voice filling the comms as each team member focused on the task at hand, getting in the base.
"But these guys are easy to take out!" Ana says, shooting down a group of enemy agents. The girl cups a hand over her mouth to project her voice to the remaining agents. "If you guys want to live longer, maybe you could Serpentine!" She yells, referring to the style of defense where the person moves forward diagonally to avoid bullets.
They didn't listen. It was like shooting fish in a barrel for Ana.
"I love fighting with Lady Ana, she always has something funny to say." Thor chuckles, before regaining his composure and focusing on the task at hand. "Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last." Natasha drove to meet up with the rest of the team, each had gone their separate ways when leaving the Quinjet but now converged as they approached a simple defense wall. Clint, Ana, and the aforementioned driver of the military truck prepared to launch out of the vehicle.
"Guys, we look so badass!" Ana says with extreme joy as, somehow, the team leaped over the barrier at the same time. Well, everyone but her egotistical brother who flew. Natasha and Ana landed back to back, surrounded by HYDRA agents. Ana casually cracked her knuckles and pulled out her duel katanas. "It's showtime, baby!"
"And people say I'm the egotistical Stark." Tony mutters as he continues to use the energy blasts to accomplish his mission. Ana rolled her eyes as she took down all the agents in front of her, and with a swift look over her shoulder Ana saw Natasha had done the same thing.
"At long last is lasting a little long, boys." Natasha says after knocking the last soldier out.
"Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise." Clint says through comms. Ana could here the distinct sound of gunshots in the background, as well as all around her.
"Hey, Barton? When we get back, we're developing a new power move together. You shoot an explosive arrow at me and I knock it away into HYDRA agents." Ana carelessly says as she glances around, spotting her Katniss Everdeen, and then a large group of enemies.
"You think that'll work?" Clint asks skeptically, eyeing the small brunette from his position.
"Let's find out. Three, two, one." Ana says confidently, raising her katana like a baseball bat, sheathing the other one. On cue, Clint fires the explosive arrow and Ana successful knocked it into the group of enemies that were nearing her. "Holy shit, I am the most badass person to live."
"What the hell is wrong with you!" Steve yells, probably piecing together the fact that Ana had Clint shoot at her for the second time in twenty four hours. "You could've died!"
"It looked cool!"
"Is that your response to everything?" Steve yells, his grandpa demeanor kicking in. "Having Clint shoot at you is dangerous!"
"Dangerously cool." Natasha mutters, earning a large laugh from Ana as she climbed a tree and jumped on a tank, opening the hatch and successfully taking out the driver.
"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?" Tony remarks, earning another laugh from Ana.
"I know." Ana watches as Steve throws his bike at some soldiers driving up in their truck. "It just slipped out."
"Yeah, and it just slipped out when I told Barton to potentially murder me." Ana teases. She barely even acknowledged the unconscious body of a HYDRA agent that was thrown to the ground next to her, curtesy of the redheaded assassin. Ana gave Natasha a nod and ran off in the opposite direction, intent on finding that damn scepter.
❉❉❉
"Who gave the order to attack?" Baron Von Strucker demanded to know as to why the lights were flashing and unit after unit of his soldiers were being sent to their demise. It's not that he actually cared for his men, it's just that he hated not being in charge.
"Herr Strucker, it's the Avengers. They landed in the far woods, the perimeter guard panicked." An unimportant, and frankly expendable, soldier tells his boss. Keeping a calm face, Strucker turned to Dr. List.
"They have to be after the scepter." He muses, not liking idea at all. He had hoped that being this far off the radar meant he could keep everything safe, the twins, his files, and most importantly, Loki's infamous scepter. The monocled man turned back to the soldier. "Can we hold them?"
"They are the Avengers!"
"Deploy the rest of the tanks." Strucker commanded. His hope was that if they put enough firearms on the field, maybe, just maybe, they'd hit someone causing the team to fall back. They can't all be invincible and made of metal.
"Yes, sir."
"Concentrate fire on the weak ones. A hit can make them close ranks. Everything we've accomplished. But we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough." Strucker voices and the soldier walks off, barking orders to everyone.
"Then let's show them what we've accomplished. Send out the twins." Dr. List says in attempt to try out his latest projects.
"It's too soon."
"It's what they signed up for."
"My men can hold them. Even the feisty one, Cuttergirl."
"You mean the girl that's supposedly come back from the dead three times, cut off four mob leaders heads? That Cuttergirl?" Dr. List says incredulously. Sending in his men to fight her and her superhero friends was a sure fire way to get everyone killed.
"No. I mean the twenty something year old girl that means to destroy your life's work." Strucker sasses back. He wasn't in the mood to deal with someone disobeying and questioning him.
Little did he know, the enhanced speedster was listening intently to his conversation. He wanted to know more about this, Cuttergirl, whoever she was.
Sure she was an enemy, but what harm can a little curiosity cause?
A lot of harm, that's what you speedy little bastard.
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