This is my first fanfic in The Avengers era. The story revolves in the Movie verse and I apologize if any spelling/grammar errors occur. Criticism is gladly accepted but flames will be ignored. I also apologize if the characters seem OOC, feel free to point it out.
[Found it yet?]
Steve's voice crackles through the rest of the Avengers comm. Thor, still not getting the hang of this new technology, shakes his head only to realize a bit too late after an awkward silence that he's supposed to respond like everyone else.
[I apologize, Captain America. I have not yet found these particular papers!]
[Why don't you yell louder? I don't think China heard you clearly enough!] Tony barks annoyingly while shuffling through another archive in yet another creepy abandoned ICU room.
[I do not understand...] Thor's puzzled voice booms through the comm. causing Clint to wince at the intensity before chuckling.
[Guys be quiet, otherwise you'll wake up the patients.]
Natasha's dry voice speaks immediately as his sentence finishes. [Haha, very funny.]
[I appreciate the unnecessary comment, Tasha.] Clint's tone is equally dry as he retorts towards the redhead standing ironically three feet away from him.
But luckily for Steve, Bruce and his calming tone fills the comm. with a small though very described explanation in which he's found a large unusual vault mounted against the wall inside the Pediatrics room. It had been hidden behind an enormous shelf cramped with stuffed animals that he'd "accidentally" pushed aside. Being the ever sensible logical man of the dysfunctional group, Bruce waits until everyone's present before "Hulk Smashing" the steel vault.
As he calms down while also receiving a spare shirt from Tony to put on, the rag-tag gang enters the apparently secret room that surprisingly turns out to be a lab. Natasha can't help but press her lips into a tight line as she and Clint walk stealthily further into the laboratory and around the different machines. Some of them still having caked up and dried blood splattered here and there. The assassins would stumble across tattered, broken dolls and toys along their path too which didn't exactly lower the creepy scale.
"Find those documents fast so we can get the hell out of here." Natasha says tensely before shutting down the comm. line. "This place gives me the creeps."
Though her face shows no hints of any emotions, Clint knows his partner better. He sees her posture being a bit too tense and the subtle grip on her gun was too tight. This place obviously brought bad memories for not only her, but the rest of the team, including himself he muses while kicking over a molded, rusty working bench having a variety of not so pretty utensils scattered atop the dirty wood. The bloodied tools cracks and topples unceremoniously on the tiled floor, making too much echoing noise in the otherwise too quiet room. Shuddering inwardly, the master marksman turns to the rest of the team scanning the laboratory.
"I agree with Agent Romanoff, we find those documents sooner than later and we'll ditch this place faster than Thor consumes a bag of pop tarts."
Nods comes from them all, minus a confused Demi-God. The motivation to be able to get out of the abandoned zombie land was enough to leave their hurried attempts with success. Within minutes after Clint's little "inspirational" speech, a whooped cheer from Steve and Tony's side has them all rushing over like rabid bunnies.
"Is it the files?" Bruce asks nervously as he eyes the exit from the lab.
"Man of Iron, have we retrieved what has rightfully been ours?" Thor questions as he tries to grab onto one piece of paper.
Tony shushes the men anxiously waiting behind him; he lets his visor slide down across his face and turns on its flashlight. The sudden bright light casts an eerily glow at the old creased papers as Iron Man quickly scans through them. The anxiety has been exchanged to anticipation when Tony finally shuts down the eyes' flashlights and lets his visor slide away, revealing a delighted face.
"Gentlemen, I think we've found our target." He holds up the documents with a wide grin as the rest of the Avengers exchange high-fives and silent agreement.
"That was easier than I thought-"
Steve doesn't manage to finish his sentence when there's a sudden when there's a loud screeching noise coming from deep within the room. Everyone's weapons are out in a flash, raised up to block or strike whatever thing that dares jump out of the shadows. The noise grows louder before coming to a halt, leaving them to relax slightly. Bruce sighs deeply while running a hand across his face, trying his best to calm down. Natasha has her bracelets activated, ready to deal a serious injure with her "Widow's Bite". Thor has already summoned Mjölnir, the hammer's present causing roaring thunders to be heard outside of the deserted hospital. Steve gingerly takes a step forwards and throws his shield blindly at the source, a clang is heard before the shield returns, flying back into his hand safe and sound. There is a tense silence filling the laboratory until Tony shatters it by using his gauntlet to fire off a repulsor blast against the place where Captain's shield had hit. The blast crackles at the spot, rising smoke covering the air.
"Was that necessary?" Steve asks in annoyance.
"It's much flashier," Tony shrugs at the old war veteran's pointed glare. "Care to repeat what you said before? I recall you saying something in the lines of this being easier than you thought, no?"
Steve mutters words closely resembling profanities while stepping closer to the armored billionaire. Before a verbal brawl can unfold, Clint hushes the two by firing an arrow in the tight spot between the two heroes' feet. He brushes past them, ripping the arrow out of the disgusting tiled floor. Natasha sends the duo a fiery glare, silencing their protests and sure to come excuses. Clint, having retrieved his arrow and knocking it onto his bow, turns once again towards the darkened place where the noise had first erupted from. His piercing blue eyes search through the murky void concealing whatever unknown object, just as Bruce is about to ask the team if they should embark deeper down the laboratory Clint swiftly fires an arrow into the darkness.
"What was the meaning of that, Clinton?" Thor inquires as he latches Mjölnir back on his belt.
A small smirk ghosts across the marksman's features. "Just wait and see."
His finger gently traces the button built into his bow, pushing it. Within seconds an enormous bang hits their ears, following up by a blinding light completed with the colors red, orange and yellow. In short, the end of the laboratory is consumed in flames. Tony pats the back of the marksman as they approach a gaping hole in the wall thanks to the arrow. It's less scarier now when the whole room is lit up by the fire, giving off a vibe of a doctor who's patients just weren't that cooperative instead of a torture chamber.
"No wonder I took a liking to you, Legolas." Tony smirks as he walks side-by Clint. "You've got the same style as I do and that's a compliment!"
"Oh wow, I feel so honored," Clint mutters sarcastically. "Weren't you the one who took the most convincing after the whole "Loki Incident"? You banned me from Stark's Tower and had Jarvis shoot me whenever I was ten miles within the vicinity!"
The genius billionaire playboy philanthropist waves his index finger back and forth in front of Clint's face. "That was all in the past and as Gandhi said; we should forgive and forget as well as move onto the future."
"Gandhi never said that." Natasha states coolly, giving him another trademark glare. "Now shut up before I place a bullet in both your mouths."
Iron Man and Hawkeye hurries to close their mouths, silencing their protests as they join the others. The noise seems to come from yet another hidden room. Though this one didn't seem to store any laboratory equipment, just the remnants of more broken toys and blood splatters. Upon closer examination, the Avengers notices that the source of the sound was from some kind of rusty steel machine having fallen onto a metallic box, causing dusty old papers to scatter all over the floor, the box had a dent on top of it while the equipment had broken in half.
"Uh guys..." Steve's nervous voice snaps the rest of the heroes to attention. "I think I've found something…"
The rag-tag bunch runs quickly over to the Captain, coming to a halt as soon as they lay eyes onto the long tank like tube looming dangerously in front of them. It's two meter long, running from the roof and stopping at the dirty tiled floor. Bruce scrutinizes it, coming to the conclusion that it has to be quite ancient as opposed to the rest of the fairly modern equipment. Even though the glass is foggy, obscuring the contents inside of it, its appearance is ancient. The glass has dents here and there while also being of an old material used in the late nineteen hundreds. He wonders briefly if Fury's shouting would be enough to break it when his breath catches in his throat upon analyzing it again. Shakily, he points at the foggy glass.
"Am I seeing things wrong or is there 'someone' inside there?" He voices timidly, making sure to put emphasize on the "someone".
"I really hope you're seeing things wrong, Doc…" Steve gulps as they all silently stare at the tube.
No one dares to move a finger, not even Tony who usually blasts through everything with the excuse that it's flashier or that they'd take too long time. Finally it's the Demi-God who steps closer to the tank; he unlatches Mjölnir and with one swift movement, breaks a hole through the glass. Disgusting smelly green fluid flows out of the hole, coating the floor. Suddenly, something falls out of the tank, landing in a heap onto the puddle of unknown liquid. A beat passes and then another before the thing begins to shiver, slowly it rolls around, facing the Avengers.
"In Odin's name, what is that?" Thor calls out in surprise.
He is about to bend down to see more of the thing's appearance, when Natasha stops his actions by grabbing onto his cape. "Stop, we don't know what that is and what it is capable of doing. Stark, if you may."
Not wasting any time, Tony lets his visor slide back on his face while he turns on the eyes' flashlights. The bright lights shine upon the thing, revealing long dark hair across the floor which in turn effectively covers its appearance. The hair is unkempt and tousled and as the light travels further down they all see pale scarred arms and legs peeking out of an oversized, long white robe. Its exposed limbs has bruises covering every spot, on top of them are sick looking flesh wounds that have clearly been infected. Dried blood cakes the edges of the wounds, not fully healed. On every exposed patch of skin there's burn marks of fourth degrees, Bruce thinks the hidden parts under the robe most likely have much more severe bruising and burnt skin. Even so, he sees the thing's identity directly, having worked as a doctor for so long while trying to find peace in the worst environments of mankind.
"That thing is a girl," he whispers softly, crouching so that he's eye-level with her still body and ignoring Natasha's order to stay put. "Yep, that is a girl. Looks like she's barely fourteen years old."
Steve coughs awkwardly at the sudden show of affection from the usually calculating doctor. But as always his instincts kick in and he is immediately crouched next to the scientist, checking the girl's condition. His index finger presses gently against her neck, only to go cold when no pulse is found. Steve shakily glances at Bruce who understands the all too familiar look.
"We'll take her with us, who knows what her DNA samples will show." He states firmly, carrying the girl bridal style.
"Since when did you become the boss?" Natasha smirks, a slight hint of amusement in her usually cold tone.
"Since I realized that SHIELD along with Fury most likely has something to do with this!"
A large gesture towards the haunted laboratory and broken tank from the doctor accompanied with slightly tinted green skin has the rest of the team snapping their mouths shut, with the exception of Natasha because she always has that face of indifference. Although the air is tense, the sense of dread and impending doom occupies everyone's thoughts. Tony is the one to finally break the anxious mood.
"Okay, who said this was going to be an easy mission?"
If you thought that Bruce was OOC. I've always thought that he has a soft spot for children, at least in the movie it felt like that.
As I said beforehand, critique is greatly approved of but flames will be terminated or moreso ignored.