Just An Echo

16: Here's a Stone, There's A Stone

Romanoff walks away swiftly running down the stairs leaving me and Bruce struggling to catch up. We finally reach the bottom of the stairs to see Stark, Potts and Barton already there looking just as annoyed as Romanoff did. I see at least two black SUVs parked next to Stark's limo whose driver looks unamused by the sudden interruption.

"What are they doing here? And follow up question why are they attacking us?" I yell over the loud sound of an engine outside. We hear a whistle coming from behind the brush and men in full back bulletproof suits sneak out from the vines. I jump back remembering they were quite good at kidnapping me last time and I definitely don't want to go through that again. Romanoff slides her gun in her holster putting her hands up to stop them. They shout something back to their leader and Agent Hill steps towards us. I feel my jaw drop as she walks towards Barton and Romanoff. I brace myself for an insane, but really awesome, fight. Instead Hill pulls Romanoff and Barton into a hug shaking hands with Bruce and Stark and showing off the soft side I've never seen. She seems sweeter in person but also much more intimidating. I hestinaly scoot to the front of the group and when her eyes fall on me her frown returns.

"Have we met?"

"Yes- um no, I mean no, we haven't met." She gives me an odd look before reaching out her hand which I shake. She watches my hand oddly, seeing I only have one glove on and I feel myself cower back in embarrassment. She turns towards Bruce and Stark crossing her arms and giving them her cold glare.

"Did you know that vines are my favorite, look at these-"

"Give it up Stark, you know the rules. SHIELD shut this program down for a good reason."

"Do you really believe that?" I ask before I can stop myself. She slowly turns towards me her eyebrow raised.

"If SHIELD shut it down then yes I believe they had good reason."

I squint at her knowing very well she sent Blackburn on a mission that counteracted every 'good' reason SHIELD had. She waves the men in gear away and they stalk back through the brush to what I think is a jet. Hill turns back towards the group giving a disappointed stare before leading us out of the facility. We make it to the limo and the driver gives us a nervous glance looking between Tony and Hill.

"Please don't go getting into even more trouble, SHIELD knows what they're doing. I trust them and so should you."

I want to yell 'then why did you betray them to go after the infinity stones' but I decide it's best to keep my mouth shut. Hill gives me a suspicious look before taking the file out of Banners hand and turning on her heel heading back to her jet. Tony makes a face at her as she leaves resulting in both me and Barton rolling our eyes.

"I saw that Stark." She yells her back still turned and I can't help but chuckle as his mad expression. We all file back into the car and I feel the wooden box press against my stomach. Looking through the back window and I see the building turn back into just a bunch of trees, almost invisible.

"That was..." Potts starts flipping her pin around her fingers.

"Absolutely and utterly useless." Barton finishes studying the road out the tinted windows. I watch him as he quietly sighs making sure everyone else doesn't see his disappointment.

"Why did we even go in the first place?" I ask a little annoyed at the secrecy but it's a spy corporation. What did I expect?

"We went there to retire information that could've been lost and hidden by SHIELD." Potts says looking to Tony for a better explanation.

"That was an infinity stone research facility and with the stones causing problems we wanted all the information we could get to stop their chaos."