The Soulmate Initiative: Book 1

7. The assassination

LOCATION: CAR

Director Fury is driving, her car talking to her "Activating communications encryption protocol." "Open secure line 0405." "Confirmed." Mason Hill answers "This is Hill." "I need you here in DC. Deep shadow conditions." "Give me four hours." "You have three. Over." Fury pulls up at a stop light and a Police car pulls up alongside her, the two officers inside giving her strange looks "Want to see my lease?" The siren wails and they drive on as the light goes green. Fury starts driving on, but a Police car rams into her from the side, her bag goes off and blows her back into her seat. The first Police car backs up into Fury's, then two more round the corner, one going into her back and the other into her other side, completely boxing her in.

"Fracture detected." The car displays an x-ray of her body and highlights one of her forearms "Recommend anesthetic injection." A black van pulls up as Fury pulls the injection out of the glove box and stabs herself in the arm "DC Metro Police dispatch shows no units in this area." Fury looks around to definitely see units in the area, surrounding her and pulling their guns out, along with the van, where armoured men get out. Fury talks to her car "Get me out of here." The Police start shooting, but the car is bulletproof "Propulsion systems offline." "Then reboot, damn it!" They stop shooting, the armour integrity having dropped a little. Out of the van they grab a battering ram and set it up right next to the driver's window, which is covered in bullets, and the car warns her "Warning. Window integrity compromised." "You think?" She crawls over to the passenger seat "How long to propulsion?" "Calculating." The battering ram hits the car, shaking it "Window integrity 31%. Deploying countermeasures." "Hold that order!" The car gets hit again and rocks violently "Window integrity 19%. Offensive measures advised." "Wait!" The car gets hit a third time and the car jolts again "Window integrity 1%." All the Police move in closer, guns up and ready "Now!" A machine gun pops up beside Fury, she grabs it, swivels it to face out of the driver's side window and rapidly shoots "Propulsion systems now online." "Full acceleration! Now!" 

The car forces its way out of the hostile situation and drives away "Initiate vertical takeoff!" "Flight systems damaged." "Then activate guidance cameras!" Fury throws herself back into the driver's seat with a groan of pain "Give me the wheel." She drives around other cars on the road being chased by the Police "Get me Agent Hill." "Communications array damaged." "Well, what's not damaged?" "Air conditioning is fully operational. Traffic ahead." "Give me an alternate route." "Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge. All vehicles stopped. 17th Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead." She drives as far as she can, but gets caught amongst the cars, several Police get out of their cars, stand on top of them and start shooting at her." Fury takes a more violent approach, forcing other cars out of the way, crushing them against others to get through. She skids out onto another road, Police still chasing her, she takes out as many as she can, including involving her getting up close and personal with one officer.

"Warning. Approaching intersection." She slams on her breaks and the two cars that were either side of her continue on, getting hit by a truck. That's now all of the Police cars taken care of. Fury turns and keeps driving "Get me off the grid!" "Calculating route to secure location." Ahead of her, walking down the middle of the road is an intimidating figure, they hold a weapon up in front of them and shoot. A disc is launched and attaches to the underside of Fury's car, then exploding, blowing her car towards the figure, who just steps aside to avoid it. Her car skids to a halt, upside down and the figure strides confidently towards it. Fury groans, laying on her back looking up at her seat, since she didn't have her seat belt on. She sees the figure walking towards her, shoulder length brown hair blowing in the breeze, dressed in all black, with a mask covering the lower half of their face and a pair of darkened goggles covering the upper half. Fury pulls out a device and wastes no time cutting a hole out of the roof and road. When the figure arrives at the car, they rip the door right off its hinges and toss it away, then looking inside the car, seeing a hole scorched into the ground.

LOCATION: AVENGERS TOWER

The tower is quiet tonight. Nian, Candice, Ashley and Regina, after much convincing to get her to leave her lab, had decided to go out for a walk, they had watched the sun set and then walked around a park together, finally starting to head home. Meanwhile, Stacey, who had been out for a ride on her motorbike, trying to clear her mind, drives into the tower. As she sends her bike up into the garage, she gets into the elevator and heads up to her floor. She is usually greeted by Jarvis, but he doesn't this time "Jarvis?" There's no response. When the elevator stops on her floor, she can hear music playing from the other side of the door right in front of her, old music. She slowly opens the door, peering into her lounge area. The lights aren't on and since the sky is dark, the only light is coming from the other skyscrapers surrounding them at various different levels. She grabs her shield and holds it in front of herself as she peers around in the darkness, trying to spot someone or hear them move. She sees it's Fury, sitting on Stacey's dark brown leather armchair.

Stacey relaxes a bit "I didn't know you had access to our rooms." Fury grunts as she moves a little "You really think I need permission? My soulmate kicked me out." Stacey remembers that Mason Hill is one of them "What did he do that for?" "There's a lot of things you don't know about me." "I know, Nora." Stacey sighs "That's the problem." She turns on the light and sees Fury's injured face, Fury turns the light back off and shows Stacey her phone screen 'Ears everywhere.' Stacey knows there's a camera in the room, it's facing their sides, the cameras were installed for their own safety and are monitored by Jarvis… who isn't responding, and she's not sure if that is down to Fury or not. Fury then speaks "I'm sorry to have to do this, but I had no place else to crash." She types something on her phone and shows it to Stacey 'SHIELD compromised.' Stacey swallows nervously "Who else knows about your soulmate?" She shows her phone again 'You and me.' While saying "Just my friends." She carefully stands and walks a bit closer "Is that what we are?" "That's up to you."

There's a sudden round of three gunshots, glass shatters and Fury yells out in pain, collapsing to the floor. Stacey looks out of the huge window, to see a figure on the roof of a very nearby skyscraper that is about level with her floor, she sees the person by the lights reflecting off of something metal on them. Stacey drags Fury behind her couch, she's coughing and gasping for air, she holds out a hard drive and Stacey takes it "Don't trust anyone." The elevator dings and the Avengers who had been on their walk, are revealed, looking shocked, Regina speaks up "We were in the elevator when we heard a loud bang. What was that?" They all hurry over and see the Director, not moving. Regina gets down on her knees beside her and checks her "She's unresponsive." Nian pulls out his phone "I'll call Mason." Ashley asks "What happened? Was she shot!?" Stacey looks out the window to see the figure running "I'm in pursuit. Stay here." 

Stacey uses her shield to protect her as she runs at her window, breaking it and leaping to the building the shooter is on top of. She smashes through a window on the top floor and runs through the level as quick as she can, smashing through anything she has to. She's running down a corridor, with a window at the end, she sees the figure drop a roll onto a lower building. Stacey breaks through the window, dropping and rolling onto the same rooftop. She gets up and launches her shield at the running figure, who surprisingly stops, turns and catches it in one hand, a metal hand. In fact, their whole left arm seems to be made out of metal, a red star painted onto the shoulder, a huge contrast to the silver. Stacey can't see most of the person's face, but can see their eyes, not wearing goggles. Their eyes are blue, intimidating, dangerous. The figure launches the shield back at Stacey, it slams into her and pushes her backwards. She is in so much shock at the amount of force behind the throw, but she blinks out of it and chases after the figure. They've already left the roof. She looks over the edge, but the shooter is nowhere to be seen.