The Soulmate Initiative: Book 1

3. A mission together

LOCATION: INDIAN OCEAN

Stacey and Nian are working a mission together with a small group of Agents, they're in a quinjet flying to a ship, Agent Rumlow is talking while showing them images on a screen "Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star. They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them, 93 minutes ago." Stacey asks "Any demands?" "Billion and a half." "Why so steep?" "Because it's SHIELD's." Stacey sighs "So it's not off-course. It's trespassing." She looks to Nian, who mumbles "I'm sure they have a good reason." "You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor." "Relax, it's not that complicated." Stacey looks back to Rumlow "How many pirates?" "25. Top mercs led by this guy." He brings up the profile of a man "Georges Batroc. Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's red notice. Before the French demobilised him, he had 36 kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties." "Hostages?" "Uh, mostly techs. One officer, Jasper Sitwell." He brings up a photograph of A SHIELD Agent they both recognise from the Helicarrier "They're in the galley." Stacey asks "What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship? Alright, I'm gonna sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nian, you kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, get them to the life pods, get them out." Everyone nods "Let's move." Rumlow starts instructing his own people as Nian and Stacey turn away "STRIKE, you heard the Captain. Gear up."

Stacey talks into her radio "Secure channel seven." And from beside her, Nian responds "Seven secure." The pilot informs them "Coming up on the drop zone, Captain." Stacey opens the hatch and Nian speaks "That lady at the park seemed nice." "She is. Ex-Military, too." She puts on her helmet "Nice. Can't wait to meet her." "I feel like she'll get on instantly with Candice." Stacey  walks to the end of the hatch and jumps, inside an Agent, looking concerned, walks up to Rumlow "Was she wearing a parachute?" Rumlow chuckles "No. No, she wasn't." Stacey drops from the sky and dives into the ocean, close to the ship.

Stacey silently climbs up the edge of the ship and over the railing, quickly and silently taking out the armed man walking by. She then runs across the deck, quickly coming across more armed men and launching her shield at one of them. Once they're both unconscious, she keeps running. She kicks the next one she comes across, straight over the edge of the ship, into the ocean. Two more come at her, but she takes them down with kicks and punches. Then she takes off again, tearing through everyone who gets in her way. A man tries to take her out with a dagger, but loses and then a man tries to pull an alarm, Stacey picks up the other man's dagger and launches it at him, the dagger goes through his hand, pinning it to the wall. She then knocks him out and keeps running, now up on the top level. She jumps over the edge onto the level below, instantly taking out two men by hitting them with her shield. She then launches it at a new guy and fights hand to hand with another, until her shield returns, then she fights the next and the next. But then a man comes up behind her with a gun trained at her head "Don't move!!" He's shot and Stacey looks back to see Rumlow landing with his parachute "Thanks." "Yeah, you seemed pretty helpless without me." He chuckles and the others start landing. Nian lands and walks up beside Stacey, who says "Secure the engine room." 

In the galley the staff are all tied up and several armed men are watching over them, talking amongst themselves "I told Batroc, if we want to make SHIELD pay us, we start sending them bodies now." One of them starts walking along the line of staff, waving his gun in their faces "I have a bullet for someone. You want a bullet in your head?" He kicks someone's foot, which is out just slightly further than most other people's "Move that foot! You want a bullet in the head!? Huh?"

Sitting comfortably up in the control room, is the man in charge "Call Durand. I want this ship ready to move when the ransom comes." Another man says into a phone "Start the engines." A man standing at a phone down below, responds "Okay." He turns to find Nian standing behind him, he smirks and kicks him straight in the knee, sending him to his knees. He then pulls out a wire and wraps it around his neck, he jumps over the banister, the wire connected to his utility belt, allowing him to zip down to the level below, shooting men as he does so. 

Back in the galley, the pirates are getting impatient "Shut up! You want to be a hero? Is that it? Alright, I've waited long enough." He bangs on a door "Hey! Find Batroc, if I don't hear anything in two minutes, I start killing them!" A man on the other side of the door responds "I'll find him." An Agent points his gun at the man, but Rumlow zaps him with an electrified rod. Several Agents abseil down the side of the ship, while Rumlow and another set up a device they attach to the door to the galley.

Up in the control room, a man tells their leader "Radio silence from SHIELD, Batroc." Stacey sneaks closer, listening.

The Agents on the outside of the ship are pointing their guns in through the windows of the galley, whispering "Targets acquired." Rumlow holds up his own gun at the door "STRIKE in position." Stacey responds "Nian, what's your status?" Nian heads down a level "Status, Nian." He runs at a man, yelling "Hang on!" He zaps him with his widow bites, then fights hand to hand with two other men "Engine room secure." He picks up a pole, turning and whacking a man, who had just started to get back up, in the face.

In the galley, the impatient one calls out "Time's up!" Sitwell sees an Agent through one of the windows "Who dies first? This one." Stacey speaks to the team "On my mark. Three. Two. One." The door is blasted off its hinges and all the pirates in the galley are all immediately shot. Sitwell shakes his head a little and talks to the dead man at his feet "I told you, SHIELD doesn't negotiate." 

The man up with their leader is talking into his radio "Hello?" Then turns to Batroc "The line just went dead. I've lost contact with them." Suddenly Stacey launches her shield through the windscreen and then jumps up through the broken window. Batroc kicks her and runs. She grabs her shield and chases after him while the Agents clear the staff out "Hostages en route to extraction. Romanoff missed the rendezvous point, Captain. Hostiles are still in play." Stacey has lost Batroc "Nian, Batroc's on the move. Circle back to Rumlow and protect the hostages." No response "Nian!" Batroc jumps at Stacey from around a corner, she gets knocked backwards. He keeps kicking at her as she uses her shield to protect herself as often as she can, not getting many chances to fight back, having to play defence. 

Batroc does some impressive backflips to get a bit of distance between the pair "I thought you were more than just a shield." Stacey, offended, straightens up. She straps her shield onto her back and takes off her helmet "Let's see." She drops her helmet and Batroc smiles. Stacey gets as many punches and kicks in as she can, flipping at the end and kicking him down in the process. He groans, but gets back up. She charges at him, pushing him through the door behind him, landing on top of him and punches him in the face, knocking him unconscious. She looks up, when she hears a voice "Well, this is awkward." She looks over at Nian, working at a computer, and gets up to walk over "What are you doing?" "Backing up the hard drive, it's a good habit to get into." "Rumlow needed your help. What the hell are you doing here?" 

She takes a look at the screens "You're saving SHIELD intel." "Whatever I can get my hands on." "Our mission is to rescue hostages." "No, that's your mission-" He pulls the hard drive out of the computer "-and you've done it beautifully." Stacey doesn't want to be angry at one of her soulmates, but she was put on this mission to lead the team, with a specific goal and Nian didn't help them complete it "You just jeopardised the whole mission." "I think that's overstating things." Suddenly Batroc wakes up and runs for the door, throwing a grenade on his way out. Stacey bats the grenade away with her shield and grabs Nian's waist, thankfully being a super soldier means picking up her boyfriend isn't a problem. She runs and jumps over a console with Nian holding onto her. The explosion sends the pair flying out of a window, into an adjoining room. They both sit down against the wall below the window they went through, panting and groaning "Okay. That one's on me." "You're damn right." Stacey gets up, in a mood. Nian sighs.