The Lone Wolf (Clint Barton)

Chapter 1: Loki

Jackie POV:

10 Years Later

Fury and I were currently in a helicopter headed to a SHIELD base where the tesseract was located. Goose had thrown up one day in the middle of a highly classified meeting, making quite the sight. Clint, Nat, and I had to avoid eye contact so our attempts at not laughing wouldn't be for naught. Fury was speechless while the rest of the people a part of the meeting were flabbergasted. I'm just glad the grumpy Board of Directors weren't attending.

Oh yeah, Nat did get to join SHIELD. She was the peacekeeper for Clint and me during our bad fights. After her training was finished, Clint and Nat got paired up more on missions together. When Nat displayed concern for me, I told jer it was fine with me because she and Clint by themselves were deadly, but the two of them together made them almost undefeatable. I was, once again, The Lone Wolf. And I loved it, that is, until four years later, Clint and Nat were transferred to the NYC HQ. After the move, they were more distant, until they stopped visiting and contacting me. It was like I didn't even exist in their world anymore, causing me to lose the two friends I trusted.

Because of that, I was more cold and defensive. The agents of SHIELD in the DC HQ were scared to even look in my direction in fear I would tear them apart, literately. Fury was the only person I was my old self with, him and him only. I had gotten better with my powers, to the point where I didn't need any help or backup when I went on missions. The ice and fire had grown so powerful that you could feel the coldness on my right side and the heat on the left side.

Agent Maria Hill, Fury's right-hand woman, was also riding with us. I respected her since she was one of the few agents who weren't scared of me. Agent Coulson had called to let us know that the scientists couldn't control the tesseract anymore. I was coming along to help move the Phase 2 prototypes into a more secure location or help Fury out with the tesseract, whichever one he decided for me to help with. I didn't like the idea of the Phase 2 prototypes, but Fury and the Board of Directors had decided that this was for the best. They were so determined that even I, the top SHIELD Agent, couldn't get them to change their mind. Fury was being very quiet on this trip, but I didn't care since I enjoyed the silence.

"Agent Barton is watching the cube." He finally spoke. I didn't look up from where I was making an ice village in my hand. I just hummed to acknowledge him. "Jackie, you need to make up with both Barton and Romanoff. I'm sure that they didn't mean to lose contact with you." I hummed again and he sighed. "Jackie, you need to talk to them. I need you too. Your back to being a..." Fury trailed off, not knowing how to continue his little pep talk he was giving me. Hill sighed, already used to these pointless talks.

"A heartless, cold, ruthless, emotionless, monster? I think that's are the words you were looking for." I asked, melting the village. "News flash Fury, if your a heartless, cold, ruthless, emotionless monster then you can't get hurt. The Lone Wolf never gets hurt mentally because it has no friends. The Lone Wolf never gets its heartbroken. The Lone Wolf is strong enough to take care of itself. That's why I'm a Lone Wolf. Nothing you can say or do will change that." I stated as the helicopter landed.

Jumping out before Fury could say anything else, Hill followed with Fury coming out last. Coulson was there to greet us. "Agent Coulson." I greeted him, smirking. Coulson was another agent I liked.

"Agent Thompson, Deputy Hill, Director Fury." Coulson greeted us.

"How bad is it?" Fury asked.

"That's the problem, sir, we don't know," Coulson replied while we were heading down on an elevator. "Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the tesseract four hours ago."