Metallic Lights {Metallic Charms Book #3}

Chapter 29: Explosive Evidence

Chapter 29: Explosive Evidence

~~~~~~~~~~~{Starlie’s Point of View}~~~~~~~~~~~

“Just hours after the horrific attack on Brooklyn, New York City experienced a full city-wide black out. Over three thousand distress calls were made to emergency services in the first thirty minutes alone, streets were blocked off and hospitals had to scramble to switch on generators or risk losing dozens of patients currently on life support.

“There is no evidence to suggest that the two events are linked, or were caused by the same people as the terror attack, but the police and other security organisations such as the FBI and the CIA are not ruling out anything just yet.

“Anthony Edward Stark, also known as Iron Man, the C.E.O of Stark Industries is apparently currently being questioned by authorities, since reports say the blackout started with his building.”

The news switched to an FBI agent explaining to the world’s media about the attack and the black out. Fury hadn’t worked out a cover story for it yet, as nobody exactly knew about Noel –they’d heard about a mysterious ‘seventh member’ of the Avengers on the day New York was attacked by aliens, but no one had caught her face on camera, only the back of her.

Noel Barton was a shadow, a ghost, to the American public –and the world,- and for all we knew, she wanted to stay that way. She wasn’t being co-operative at the moment, so Fury had ordered our investigation of the attack on Brooklyn –and specifically Steve Rogers- to go ahead, and we’d work out the mess that was Noel Barton and her unstable and destructive tendencies later. The news had no idea that S.H.I.E.L.D was investigating. They knew of us because of the alien attack in New York and the Avengers, but other than that, they did not know much else. For now, we were dressed as CIA agents and were conducting our examination of the crime scene as them, with their permission.

“Great, another Noel mess that we have to clean up.” I grumbled. I’d been out of the room –out of the building even- when the blackout had occurred. All I saw were the lights rolling out street by street by street and people panicking. The screams. Even hours after the attack, people were still screaming in the streets.
They thought 9/11 was the end.
They thought New York was the end.

But as long as there were heroes around, there was going to be some form of terror.

Sometimes I thought about telling that to the others, but I knew that for people like Steve, Natasha, Clint –god forbid, even Skylar Evans- saving people was a way of life. Something they couldn’t live without. I even merely suggested taking that away from them, I didn’t think they’d ever look me in the eye again. Sky had chosen not to go through with killing a target (who turned out to be, surprise, surprise, Noel Barton) because she didn’t see why she was a threat. I think that’s when all of our lives turned for the worst –the day Evans didn’t assassinate Barton. If she was dead, none of this would have happened.

“You better watch your mouth, Banner.” Clint snapped as he shut off his phone, the news screen disappearing and we stepped out of the sleek black Sedan the CIA was oh-so fond of.
“You have your opinions, I have mine. Nothing good can come by bottling it all up.” I sighed, following him into the wrecked apartment block that had once been Steven Rogers’ home.

“I know you don’t like her, but I’m her brother.” He didn’t even bother looking at me when he was talking like this anymore. “At least show a little bit of respect.”
“And why would I show a monster respect?” I snapped.
“Because your father has been called a monster by every media outlet, government agency and person in the world.” He turned on me; his blue eyes were icy as if they had captured Loki’s breath. I’d been told about what happened to him during the attack on New York –or more accurately, the days leading up to it. He’d been turned and forced to play Loki’s games and do his bidding –his killing and scheming. He’d been going to therapy ever since, but he didn’t like to admit it –Tasha helped more than the therapist did though, I think. Sometimes you could still see him drifting off into day-nightmares that contained the fuzzy memories of what he had done. He saw himself as a monster, not for being an assassin, but for what had happened to him during those few days.