New Fic: Frozen (Avengers) Chapter 2
Oct. 11th, 2012 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityAN: There was that trope thing for stories you weren't going to write. And, technically, this is in the spirit of that, since I stole it from the prompt I gave to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tielan. Unbetaed flashfic is unbetaed.
Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit
Spoilers: The movie
Characters: Maria Hill, Steve Rogers
Rating: Teen? For now.
Summary: When Maria gets an alert about a security breach at a derelict lab in the Yukon, she goes to put it right.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Rogers has produced a gun of his own, and placed himself in front of her, directly in the line of fire. She doesn’t mind: he’s the one with the shield, after all. He does the same thing to Natasha in a firefight. Hell, he does the same thing to Stark. He’s laying down enough fire that Maria can take a moment to think between her own rounds, and by the time she’s reaching for her third magazine, she has a plan.
“We’re falling back,” she shouts.
“Good,” he replies, and shifts so that they can both retreat without losing the cover of the shield.
Maria leads him backwards, both of them still firing, until they reach the elevator shaft. The lab has several layers, all built into the Precambrian rock, so they can go up and still be underground. She pulls out her grappler and fires upwards, smiling with relief when the hook catches on something.
“Rogers,” she says, calling him to test it. The cable is going to have to carry them both.
“Let’s go,” he says, after pulling hard and not bringing it down on their heads. He holds out his shield arm and Maria thinks, once again, about all the things that are not covered in basic training.
“Orange button,” she says, and then his arm is holding her tightly against him, and they are flying.
The gunshots fade beneath them, but the swearing at their escape is rather creative, and then they reach the hook and jerk to a stop. They hang there, Maria clinging to Captain Freaking America like she’s in some ridiculous dime store comic.
“Agent Hill?” Rogers asks.
“Can you make that door there?” Maria asks, peering through the gloom at what used to be the level four elevator doors.
“Yes,” he says. “Careful, this might hurt.”
He kicks off the back wall and they careen towards the door. He hits it the only way he can: shield first, with Maria sandwiched between metal and man. They break through, and damn, he wasn’t kidding when he said it would hurt. He lets her go the instant they’re on the floor, and she rolls up on all fours, coughing and aching, and trying to breathe.
“Hill?” he says, concerned this time.
“One minute,” she says. She’s not coughing up blood. That’s probably a good sign. After three more breaths her ribs stop feeling like they’re going to squeeze shut on her lungs, and she decides she’s good to go.
“Okay,” she says. “They’re three levels down and it’s going to take them a while to get up here. We should send for reinforcements and then hole up somewhere. There are plenty of rooms on this level, and a couple of them lock from the inside.”
“Works for me,” he says.
“You don’t mind hiding?” she says, because she can’t resist.
“In a close-quarters gun fight, being Captain America isn’t that much of an advantage,” he points out. “And there were a lot of them. Better to pick a good spot and fill the doorway with them if they try to breach.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” she says.
She’s holding her gun, and she detaches the grappler to reholster it. She has four mags left and a couple of knives in various places. Her heavy coat, and her pack, on the other hand, are three floors away and surrounded by armed thugs. When she exhales she can see her breath. This is a problem.
“Just find the room, agent,” Rogers says, bringing her back to their immediate problems.
“Right,” Maria says.
She takes out her emergency beacon, the one that will tell Fury they need help, and activates it. It’s Stark tech, so it works even though they’re in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by rock. There are some advantages to collaborating with the Avengers. If this was SHIELD issue, they’d have to get outside and hope for clear skies.
“This way, Captain,” she says, and leads him into the warren of rooms that make up this level.
The first time Maria came here, she was a newly minted agent and she truly believed that SHIELD was doing the right thing. When she’d seen this floor in action, full of test subjects and bright with fluorescent lights, she’d almost quit on the spot. She’d stayed, though, because Nick Fury had seen the look in her eyes and promised her that if she stuck with him, things would change.
And they had. Sometimes it felt like things had changed so much she’d lose direction. Right now, she feels like things haven’t changed at all.
“These are cells,” Rogers says. “I thought you said this was a lab.”
“It was a lab,” she says, all clipped edges.
Rogers is looking at the cells, and she knows it’s only a matter of time before he puts it all together.
“These cells weren’t for holding animals, were they?” he asks, so quietly that she wouldn’t hear the anger in this voice, if it hadn’t also been in hers.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to, Captain,” she says.
“I don’t want to,” he says. “But I think I should.”
“Wait until we’re settled,” she says. “This one, I think.”
It’s an internal observation room, so it locks from the inside, and if they hide in the corner, they won’t be seen by someone looking through the window. The glass is bullet proof (and more), and if the door is breached, the bad guys still won’t be able to come at them more than one at a time.
Rogers pushes the door shut and locks it. He sets his shield down on the old bones of a desk, and Maria begins to pace. She’s not anxious, but she’s cold. Moving around will help.
“It’s you, of course,” she says. “It’s always you, with SHIELD. One experiment, one time, and they’ll never stop trying to recreate it.”
Rogers doesn’t say anything, but his shoulders are tight, and his hands are fists inside their gauntlets.
“It was awful,” she says. “We stopped it.”
“You stopped it here,” he says. “It went on.”
“And Fury will never stop fighting to make it go away,” she says. “And neither will I.”
Later, Maria will realize that this is the moment when, against all her better judgement, she joined the Avengers.
“Those guys down there,” he says after a moment, “they’re here for information. For some smashed up old hard – ” he looks for the word “ – drive. Imagine how pleased they’ll be when they realize they've got the real boy.”
“Our back up will be here by then,” Maria says. “We just have to last until then.”
“Your hands are blue,” he points out. “Come here.”
He puts his arms around her again, with her hands between them. She feels marginally less likely to freeze to death. He sighs, slumping back against the desk, and her hair ruffles.
Definitely not covered in basic training.
TBC, in Chapter 3
tielan. Unbetaed flashfic is unbetaed.Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit
Spoilers: The movie
Characters: Maria Hill, Steve Rogers
Rating: Teen? For now.
Summary: When Maria gets an alert about a security breach at a derelict lab in the Yukon, she goes to put it right.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Rogers has produced a gun of his own, and placed himself in front of her, directly in the line of fire. She doesn’t mind: he’s the one with the shield, after all. He does the same thing to Natasha in a firefight. Hell, he does the same thing to Stark. He’s laying down enough fire that Maria can take a moment to think between her own rounds, and by the time she’s reaching for her third magazine, she has a plan.
“We’re falling back,” she shouts.
“Good,” he replies, and shifts so that they can both retreat without losing the cover of the shield.
Maria leads him backwards, both of them still firing, until they reach the elevator shaft. The lab has several layers, all built into the Precambrian rock, so they can go up and still be underground. She pulls out her grappler and fires upwards, smiling with relief when the hook catches on something.
“Rogers,” she says, calling him to test it. The cable is going to have to carry them both.
“Let’s go,” he says, after pulling hard and not bringing it down on their heads. He holds out his shield arm and Maria thinks, once again, about all the things that are not covered in basic training.
“Orange button,” she says, and then his arm is holding her tightly against him, and they are flying.
The gunshots fade beneath them, but the swearing at their escape is rather creative, and then they reach the hook and jerk to a stop. They hang there, Maria clinging to Captain Freaking America like she’s in some ridiculous dime store comic.
“Agent Hill?” Rogers asks.
“Can you make that door there?” Maria asks, peering through the gloom at what used to be the level four elevator doors.
“Yes,” he says. “Careful, this might hurt.”
He kicks off the back wall and they careen towards the door. He hits it the only way he can: shield first, with Maria sandwiched between metal and man. They break through, and damn, he wasn’t kidding when he said it would hurt. He lets her go the instant they’re on the floor, and she rolls up on all fours, coughing and aching, and trying to breathe.
“Hill?” he says, concerned this time.
“One minute,” she says. She’s not coughing up blood. That’s probably a good sign. After three more breaths her ribs stop feeling like they’re going to squeeze shut on her lungs, and she decides she’s good to go.
“Okay,” she says. “They’re three levels down and it’s going to take them a while to get up here. We should send for reinforcements and then hole up somewhere. There are plenty of rooms on this level, and a couple of them lock from the inside.”
“Works for me,” he says.
“You don’t mind hiding?” she says, because she can’t resist.
“In a close-quarters gun fight, being Captain America isn’t that much of an advantage,” he points out. “And there were a lot of them. Better to pick a good spot and fill the doorway with them if they try to breach.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” she says.
She’s holding her gun, and she detaches the grappler to reholster it. She has four mags left and a couple of knives in various places. Her heavy coat, and her pack, on the other hand, are three floors away and surrounded by armed thugs. When she exhales she can see her breath. This is a problem.
“Just find the room, agent,” Rogers says, bringing her back to their immediate problems.
“Right,” Maria says.
She takes out her emergency beacon, the one that will tell Fury they need help, and activates it. It’s Stark tech, so it works even though they’re in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by rock. There are some advantages to collaborating with the Avengers. If this was SHIELD issue, they’d have to get outside and hope for clear skies.
“This way, Captain,” she says, and leads him into the warren of rooms that make up this level.
The first time Maria came here, she was a newly minted agent and she truly believed that SHIELD was doing the right thing. When she’d seen this floor in action, full of test subjects and bright with fluorescent lights, she’d almost quit on the spot. She’d stayed, though, because Nick Fury had seen the look in her eyes and promised her that if she stuck with him, things would change.
And they had. Sometimes it felt like things had changed so much she’d lose direction. Right now, she feels like things haven’t changed at all.
“These are cells,” Rogers says. “I thought you said this was a lab.”
“It was a lab,” she says, all clipped edges.
Rogers is looking at the cells, and she knows it’s only a matter of time before he puts it all together.
“These cells weren’t for holding animals, were they?” he asks, so quietly that she wouldn’t hear the anger in this voice, if it hadn’t also been in hers.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to, Captain,” she says.
“I don’t want to,” he says. “But I think I should.”
“Wait until we’re settled,” she says. “This one, I think.”
It’s an internal observation room, so it locks from the inside, and if they hide in the corner, they won’t be seen by someone looking through the window. The glass is bullet proof (and more), and if the door is breached, the bad guys still won’t be able to come at them more than one at a time.
Rogers pushes the door shut and locks it. He sets his shield down on the old bones of a desk, and Maria begins to pace. She’s not anxious, but she’s cold. Moving around will help.
“It’s you, of course,” she says. “It’s always you, with SHIELD. One experiment, one time, and they’ll never stop trying to recreate it.”
Rogers doesn’t say anything, but his shoulders are tight, and his hands are fists inside their gauntlets.
“It was awful,” she says. “We stopped it.”
“You stopped it here,” he says. “It went on.”
“And Fury will never stop fighting to make it go away,” she says. “And neither will I.”
Later, Maria will realize that this is the moment when, against all her better judgement, she joined the Avengers.
“Those guys down there,” he says after a moment, “they’re here for information. For some smashed up old hard – ” he looks for the word “ – drive. Imagine how pleased they’ll be when they realize they've got the real boy.”
“Our back up will be here by then,” Maria says. “We just have to last until then.”
“Your hands are blue,” he points out. “Come here.”
He puts his arms around her again, with her hands between them. She feels marginally less likely to freeze to death. He sighs, slumping back against the desk, and her hair ruffles.
Definitely not covered in basic training.
TBC, in Chapter 3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 09:49 pm (UTC)I'm really loving this. Perhaps you can write more on the road trip and read it out loud as we're driving. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 04:32 am (UTC)And they had. Sometimes it felt like things had changed so much she’d lose direction. Right now, she feels like things haven’t changed at all.
“These are cells,” Rogers says. “I thought you said this was a lab.”
“It was a lab,” she says, all clipped edges.
I love this section and what it says about Maria, Maria's relationship with Fury, and a lot about why Steve could be/is very, very attracted to her.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-12 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-14 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 05:35 am (UTC)I love Maria's practicality all through this, and her thought: 'not covered in basic training'. Hilarious and wonderful! :)
Plus, huddling for warmth! WOOHOO!
no subject
Date: 2012-10-13 11:01 pm (UTC)