Not An Avenger

Hunted

I went to my apartment confused. Why had Hill wanted to Fury to appear dead? I was really worried about him. Tetradoxlin B after the injuries he suffered? It could be disastrous. Of course Hill had taken away his 'body' away, so there was no way for me to make sure if he was okay.

And why had Steve given me the pen drive? What was I supposed to do with it? I didn't plug it in. Somehow, I thought he wouldn't want the SHIELD homing server to find out the drive's location.

I was speculating what to do, when I heard a knock on my window. I turned and behold, Steve Rogers was standing in my balcony. I didn't even bother to think how he got there.

I opened the window. "I've a door, you know."

"I don't think a fugitive from SHIELD could afford to use that." He said. "You have the drive?"

Why was he a fugitive? "Yes." I said, handing the drive to him. "Where did you get it?"

"Fury gave it to me. Speaking of Fury, you've got some serious explaining to do."

"He's not dead, all right? Maria gave me a drug to inject him with. It slowed down his heart to make him look dead. That's all I know." I explained.

He looked relieved. Did he seriously think that I killed Fury?

It was my turn to ask question. "How did you manage to become fugitive from SHIELD?"

"Because of this." He said, holding out the flash drive. "Alexander Pierce is SHIELD's new director. And he desperately wanted to get his hands on this. Fury told me not to trust anyone with this. We have to find out what is in it."

"It's easier said than done. This device has level 5 homing program. SHIELD would know our location as soon as we plug it in. Besides there would be unlimited layers on security in there and I'm not that good in hacking. There's no way we can pull this off alone. We have to get this to Tony. He'll know what to do."

His face suddenly turned grim, as soon as I said Tony's name. "Have you seen the news?" he asked.

"No. What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. He was scaring me now. I quickly switched on the television.

'Billionaire Tony Stark killed by the Mandarin. Terrorist attack at Stark Mansion.' I read the headlines. They were showing pictures of Tony's house blown to pieces. I couldn't hear what the anchor was saying. It felt like my ears had gone numb.

"This is not possible. Tony can't die like this." I said, looking at Steve. I was not in denial. I knew there was no way Tony would die like this, with the number of Iron man suits at his mansion.

Steve didn't reply. He just ran towards me and pinned me to the ground. I looked around to see bullets shattering my windows. What was happening?

Steve grabbed me and crawled towards the balcony. It wasn't difficult for him, considering how tiny I was. "What are you doing?" I shouted at him over the noise of the bullets.

"Just trust me. And grab hold." He said, jumping out.

We were already midair when I threw my arms around his neck. Even then, all I could think about was how perfect his deltoid was, instead of the impending death.

However, death didn't come as I expected it to. Steve broke our fall by grabbing the rails of a balcony. We landed on the ground with a soft thud, as he let go.

"Are you all right?" he asked, his lips almost touching my ear. I realized I hadn't let go of him yet. I quickly removed my hands from around his neck and stood up.

"I'm fine." I said. "Who were they?"

"SHIELD apparently." He said, showing me one of the bullets in his hand. Yep, that was the SHIELD hallmark.

"We can't stay here." He motioned me to follow him.

He led me to a car, which if I remembered correctly was not his. I got in without any questions.

It was him who spoke first, when we were a few miles away from my apartment. "It must be difficult for you, with Stark being…attacked." He didn't use the word 'killed'. Maybe even he didn't believe that Tony was dead. "But he can't help us now. We have to get this done on our own."

He was right. I took a deep breath trying to get Tony out of my mind for now. "Let's go to an Apple store. The firewall might keep the homing signals at bay for some time. Still, we wouldn't have more than 10 minutes."

He steered the car towards the Technicia block.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Sure."

"Why did you give the flash drive to me? For all you knew I had just murdered Fury."

"I trust you more than that." He simply stated.

To be honest, I was touched. He trusted me more than he trusted his own mind.

"So, where did you steal this car?" I asked him, trying to lighten the mood.

He became defensive. "I borrowed it."

"Oh, for a moment I actually thought you compromised for the greater good." I was having fun, chiding him like that.

"I know I can be very irritating, being stubborn like that…"

"No." I interrupted him. "It's not irritating. It's actually one of the things I admire about you."

He looked at me with a surprised expression. He obviously hadn't expected that compliment.

"Thanks." He said. Was he blushing?

…

I was fidgeting with the flash drive as we entered the Apple Store. Steve noticed my nervousness and squeezed my hand. It provided little comfort.

All this month I had been trying to suppress the Tesserect energy inside me, but now I wished I could use it to decode this flash drive. Though, I suppose I couldn't be used for that.

I had 'borrowed' a couple of nerdy caps and glasses, hoping it might make the STRIKE team of SHIELD work a little harder to find us. Taking a deep breath, I plugged in the flash drive. My mind and fingers automatically started working in turbo mode. I knew in two minutes that the drive would be impossible for me to hack.

"Getting somewhere?" Steve asked me. God, his nerdy look was distracting me.

"No. I can't hack it." I said, still trying to find any minor detail I could get my hands on. "Let's go." I plugged out the drive.

I had expected Steve to give me a disappointed look but he didn't. He simply nodded and started walking.

I realized we were a little late, when I saw a SHIELD Agent in the corridor. They were already sweeping the building for us.

Steve had got into the elevator before I could stop him. I followed him inside. So, did the SHIELD Agent. The elevator was crowded but it wouldn't take long for him to recognize us. I had to think fast. What makes me look away from people in public?

Oh!

I turned towards Steve, stood on my toes and put my lips on his. At first, he was slightly taken aback, but didn't recoil. Instead he put his hand on my waist to support me. His lips started moving against mine and it felt good enough to get me carried away. At this point I had forgotten about everything else.

I was brought back to my senses by the ring of the elevator. The SHIELD Agent got out. Miraculously, he had not seen us. I broke free from Steve. He looked at me, confused. I grabbed his hand, leading him outside.

I must have been blushing when I explained him in a low voice, "Agent Morrison was on the lift. They were searching for us. I thought it might make him look away."

"Oh." Was all he said.