HELLO LOVELY PEOPLE!
SO PLEASANT TO SEE YOU ALL AGAIN, AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY MY SEQUEL OF CHILDHOOD HERO AS MUCH AS THE FIRST STORY.
BY THE WAY, IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST STORY, I SUGGEST YOU DO, OR ELSE NOTHING WILL MAKE SENSE.
CLICK ON MY PROFILE TO SEE IT.
BEFORE I BEGIN, I'D LIKE YOU TO REMEMBER SOMETHING I SAID AT THE END OF THE EPILOGUE ON THE LAST BOOK.
I CAN'T STAND NOT HAVING A HAPPY ENDING.
JUST SO YOU REMEMBER, BECAUSE YOU MIGHT NOT ENTIRELY LIKE WHERE THIS STORY WILL GO.
ANYWAY, ENJOY!
- - -
Childhood Hero: Return of the Redbird
Steve's POV
I open the door to my Brooklyn apartment, having just come back from SHIELD headquarters where I was spending time with Bruce.
The silence welcomes me, enveloping my body as it tries to suffocate me.
I let it. It's been too quiet in here for three months.
It's been over one and a half years since Loki's attack on Manhattan, and we haven't had any large battles since.
I go into the kitchen and grab a microwave meal, piercing the cover with a fork and putting in the heating machine like Zoey taught me.
I've learned many things since I woke up from the ice, mostly because the rest of the team have gotten sick of my clueless-ness.
But Zoey has been so kind and caring, helping me whenever I ask.
A knock on the door persuades me to trudge back through the apartment to the hall.
After undoing the chain, I unlock the door and open it.
Clint stands in the hallway on my floor, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket and his back hunched slightly.
His face is half illuminated by the light from my apartment, shadowed by my form.
"Hey, Steve." He grins slightly.
"Hello," I move so he can step inside, "I'm making dinner, do you want some?"
"TV dinners?" Clint asks and I nod silently, earning a small grin from the trained assassin.
"Awesome." He chuckles, following me into the kitchen.
He watches at the bench as I take my meal out and put his in, pouring them both into bowls and handing him his dinner.
"Curry," He laughs, "My favourite."
We sit on the couch and eat our dinners, the sound of the news on the television in the background.
"How have you been?" I ask.
"Alright." He nods, "You?"
I hesitate, before nodding.
"Good." I mumble.
We sit in silence as we eat the dinners, watching the anchorman tell us about the current events on the news.
"Isn't that Stark?" Clint asks, pointing at our friend who's face is projected onto the screen, holding a press conference.
"He's in rehab," I sigh, "After they stopped that Mandarin fellow, Pepper's finally convinced him to deal with his drinking problem."
"Finally." Clint smiles and looks around the apartment.
The emptiness of the place makes the flat seem unused, the homely feeling having left it.
"Have you heard from her?" Clint asks, turning his head back to me.
I rub the back of my neck as I answer, my fingers tousling the back of my hair.
"Not for the past month," I tell him in a strained voice, "But I know she can't always phone where she is, the winter is just blizzards in Russia."
"Nat's the same," Clint nodded, "Since they're out there together."
I murmur in agreement, taking our dishes into the kitchen.
When I sit back down, Clint has shed his black jacket for a dark blue shirt; plain and simple.
"How are you holding up?" He asks.
"The same as always," I shrug, "It just feels so empty in here."
I look around the apartment as he had done moments ago, taking in the the clean tables and chairs.
"She cleaned up before she left," I say, "And I haven't really touched anything since."
"What have you been doing?" Clint asks curiously, "Besides work, I mean-"
"Anything." I tell him, "I stay out as much as I can, then come home when I can barely stay awake."
"You're here now." He points out.
"I've been at Stark Tower for two nights." I tell him, "Thought it was time to come back."
"They're coming home in a week, Steve." Clint tells me, "We'll see them again really soon."
"I know." I admit, looking at a framed photo of us on the coffee table. "I just really miss her."
"We all do." He gets up, "I'll see you on Monday morning."
I nod and see him out the door, locking it behind me and connecting the chain guard.
I sigh a heavy sigh; my shoulders sagging and my body hunching over.
I drag my feet through the apartment, turning off the television and heading off to bed.
I crash onto the bed straight away, rolling over and wrapping the blanket over me.
Her smell envelopes me, calming my thoughts, except for one.
"I miss her." I admit to the night. A stray cat meows outside and the sound of laughter echoes down the street.
I shut my eyes and roll onto my stomach, my dreams full of her.
I awaken the next morning, to the sound of my phone ringing.
Groaning, I sit up in bed and blink my eyes into focus. I scratch the back of my neck and grab the mobile phone on my bedside table.
"Hello?" I ask groggily into the speaker, noticing the call was from SHIELD.
"We need you to come in." Nick Fury's voice came clearly through the phone.
"Why?" I ask, "Has something happened? Has Loki come back?"
"No." I can feel the hesitation in his voice before he speaks once again.
"Agent Redbird has been compromised."
~ ~
Zoey's POV
"Go fish." I yawn as Nat picks up another card, "Any sevens?"
"Go fish." She says tiredly.
The grandfather clock in the corner of the cabin chimes loudly, signalling the tenth hour of the evening.
"Five minutes." She tells me as we get up and put on our gear.
"Roger that." I say.
I rush and grab my gear, putting on layers of thermal clothing. I pick up my backpack and put on a pair of goggles.
I stand by the door and wait for Natasha.
"Ready?" She asks as she turns up, wearing the same dark clothes as me and clutching her skis.
"Absolutely." I respond, pulling my goggles over my eyes.
We both nod at each other, leaving the cabin and getting ready to head off.
"Remember-" Nat says through the blizzard wind.
"Don't be seen, and don't get caught." I cut her off.
"Sorry if you get captured, Zoey." Nat calls teasingly.
"Likewise." I laugh slightly, "I'll try and produce some tears for Clint, shall I?"
"Hey!" She laughs, skiing off down the snow covered mountain.
I go the other way, flying upwards over the treeline, heading for our destination, both of us planning to meet on different ends of the enemy base, deep in the valley next to the mountain.
We've been planning this attack for weeks, both of us having already infiltrated the corrupt organization and learned all the ways to sneak inside undetected.
SHIELD has received information that an organization known as ARROW has corrupted a secret Russian government facility.
They have access to nuclear destruction, capable of blowing any city to smithereens at the press of a button.
But they've been on SHIELD's radar before, as ARROW is a terrorist group of train assasins, who've killed important leaders and dictators on countless occasions over the past ninety-something years.
They never collaborate with governments, they never ask for money or ransoms, they never give any warnings.
So once we found out about ARROW's corruption of this country's of the government, SHIELD deployed Natasha and I to infiltrate their main facility and shut it down before they could attack anyone.
We're taking them out, tonight.
I fly through the quiet Russian night, the only sound coming from the whining wind.
I scan the ground, making my way north, then circling back around.
As I near the end of the mountain, a howl sounds from the east, the night animals beginning to appear.
The ground begins to level and the trees become more prominent as I reach the bottom of the mountain. The valley shows up in the west, the signal for me to turn and circle around to it.
I go left, turning around and heading towards the vicinity. The base has few lights on, a small, navy building set into the snow.
I land behind the forest treeline and hide in the shadows, my clothes matching the dark.
The base is mostly underground, the only entrance in the area above the ground. But Nat and I discovered abandoned emergency exits. They've been stuck shut by layers of snow, one hundred feet below the surface of the earth.
That was when we realized, if anything bad was to happen, people working inside aren't meant to get out of there.
I'm half a mile away from the building, cautious and aware of the security cameras surrounding the base at night.
The only light beside the soft moonlight, covered by a dense layer of winter clouds, is a single light coming from the base, from the room with the security man who had the night shift.
There's a patrol every half hour, on every hour and it's thirty minutes past. I look at my watch, synced with SHIELD's and Natasha's, and wait for the 10:30 patrol around the base.
Two figures appear at either end of the base, walking past each other, exchanging a few words, before disappearing around the other sides of the building.
I count to sixty, making sure the patrol is over, before emerging from the tree line.
"One, two three..." I count my steps as I measure the length of the treeline, to exactly where I've dug a tunnel down to one of the north end emergency exits.
I've dug through the ice over the past few weeks, then secured a layer of wood at the top and covered it in snow to hide it.
I make it to thirty seven, before stepping gingerly forward, feeling the hardness of the wood under the layer of snow.
I quickly, silently, scrape away the snow, revealing wood panelling. I pull it out and get into the diagonal tunnel, digging my toes into the snow and replacing the wood.
I put it halfway into the tunnel, so I have room to cover it in snow before pulling out a flashlight and making my way through the tunnel.
I half-crawl, half-slide, on my hands and knees for a good ten minutes, moving the half-mile towards the base, whilst going downwards towards the underground part of the vicinity.
I mentally congratulate myself for remembering gloves for my hands, which slip along the ice as the temperature drops underground.
Air is scarce, so I remember my training and control my breathing, and try not to waste what little oxygen I have.
After the ten minutes, I reach the metal opening; a round, circular hole into the underground building.
I open it quietly, slipping inside and shutting it behind me.
I sneak through the shadows, keeping out of the view of the security cameras I've memorized these past few months.
I move to the center of the facility, where all the electrical room is. I fin the door to the closet, putting my key card into the door to open it.
I glance at my key card, seeing my face printed on it, with my false identity.
Georgia Williams
I slip into the room and shut the door behind me.
The Russian government, or ARROW, aren't as smart as I previously assumed, seeing as the only rooms that don't have security cameras are the bathrooms, change rooms, and janitor/electrical closets.
I grin and walk around the mops and brooms to the electrical panel.
I open it, scanning the wires as I automatically take out my wire clippers.
I hold them up, pulling out the thinnest red wire.
Funny how something so small can do something so big.
I look at my watch, watching the small green second and minute numbers reach 10:40.
"Seven minutes before they fix it." I whisper inaudibly.
I've got seven minutes to do what I came here to do, and get out before meeting Nat back at the hidden cabin.
I take a deep breath, the clock reaching 10:40, and cut the wire.
Nothing changes inside of the janitors closet, as there's nothing electrical inside, but I peek out the door, and grin at the lack of a red blinking light on the nearest security camera.
I move silently through the corridors, heading to the office of the most important person in the organization.
The Archer, with capitals.
Nobody knows his name, except his closest partners, but SHIELD knows that he's the head of ARROW.
He's more important than the government head in the organization, he's apparently a forty year old man, who's been a trained assassin for twenty-two years, only twenty years older than myself.
We only have that information from agents in the past, all who have communicated with SHIELD during their missions, but never in person.
No agent has ever returned from a mission involving ARROW, but Natasha and I are going to be the first.
I move like a shadow through the underground compound, heading straight to the man who has ruined so many lives.
I've been given the job of taking him out. Something I'm not proud to do.
But he has ruined the lives of so many people, killed so many agents, that I just have to think about all the lives I'm saving by doing what I'm about to do.
I take out my gun, connected to a silencer, as I reach the door.
It's a plain, black door, oak, but most likely metal behind it.
An eye scanner is the only way in, and it is has a separate generator to the rest of the building, but I have my powers instead.
I stand in front of the door, hold up my hands and send a force field straight at the door, causing it dint inwards heavily.
It swings open easily at my touch, the hinges having broken off by the force of my powers.
I step into the room, gun raised, scanning every inch of the office.
Nobody's in here
I listen for the obvious signs of breathing or movement and check for any shadows or signs of live.
Nothing.
I walk around the office, gun raised, but nobody is in here.
The Archer has left, but we knew he was in here tonight, so possibly when the electricity went out.
"Oh, Nat," I say quietly, "I hope you got him."
She was to cover the exit, so if The Archer was to pass her, she could be the back up plan.
Suddenly, the lights turn back on, the electricity working again.
I look at my watch.
Five minutes.
"Shit." I curse, rushing back through he shadows of the compound, gun raised and alert.
I make it quickly back to the exit, opening it and hopping inside.
I close it behind me and fly straight upwards to the surface, in a rush in case one of the ARROW assassins follows me.
I make it to the wood panel and push it desperately through, I jump out and stand on the snow.
"Hello, Agent." A voice says from behind me.
I quickly fly upwards, to the safety of my sky, but a net descends upon me, trapping me to the earth.
I fall onto the ground, and try to pull myself up.
"Don't even try." The voice continues, "We know about your powers. We've watched you use them for months now. As long as you're in this net, your powers don't work here, little girl."
I get to my knees, and begin pulling the net off me.
"Not so fast."
Ten figures hold the large net down, trapping me in the center of it, surround me in an impenetrable circle.
I continue to struggle, when a piercing pain goes through my side.
I scream in pain, sagging forward as an arrow lodges in me.
I grit my teeth an take hold of it, about to pull it out.
"Good luck getting that thing out." The voice mocks me, "We here at ARROW don't use any old archery equipment. You couldn't pull out that arrow if you tried."
I stop pulling, the pain becoming too much, and fall onto my side, the arrow lying horizontal.
The figure walks up to me, a deep, throaty chuckle erupting from their lips.
"You're a long way from home, Zoey Redbird." The Archer says, "And we've been waiting for you for so long."
- - -
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
CLIFFHANGER, I KNOW, BUT YOU'LL UNDERSTAND AS YOU CONTINUE.
I'D LIKE TO POINT OUT RIGHT NOW THAT THIS STORY ISN'T AS INNOCENT AS THE FIRST ONE.
HERE THERE BE MONSTERS.
ANYWAY, COMMENT WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE OPENING CHAPTER.
THANKS GUYS.
READ, COMMENT, VOTE, FAN,
YOU KNOW THE DRILL.
NAINAI x