Song; Angel With a Shotgun by The Cab

"Why do you fight?" Agent Mason had been staring thoughtfully out the window since before Steve has slid into the backseat beside her, and hadn't acknowledged him since.

"Excuse me?" Steve had been looking out the opposite window at modern D.C., sensing his companion wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"Seventy years ago you were fighting a war, which is admirable, but you've done your duty- no one would blame you if, well, you retired." She had turned from the view and was watching him intently.

"Well, I guess I'm fighting for freedom."

"That didn't sound very confident."

"I don't like bullies."

"That's a better answer," she gave him a small smile, "though you may be working with the wrong people." Agent Mason gestured to herself and the agents surrounding them in the car.

"What do you fight for?"

"The illusion of freedom." She gave a dry chuckle at Steve's questioning look, "Freedom is all relative, but people don't realize just how little they have. Freedom has a high cost, S.H.I.E.L.D pays it, in the 'best interests' of society, and gives the illusion of freedom while making decisions that affect billions of people. I guess that's what I fight for too." Agent Mason seemed to be looking past Steve, lost in her own thoughts.

"That doesn't seem like a good way to live."

"You're telling me." She gave him a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "So, what makes you keep fighting now, for a broken society and corrupt governments?"

"Hope." He chuckled when Agent Mason made a face at him. "I'm serious, there will always be bad people in the world, and when we lose hope- they win."

"You make it sound so simple." The SUV made a turn, catching Agent Mason's attention. "Where are we going?"

The agent in the passenger seat responded without taking his eyes off of the road, "Direct orders from Director Fury, we're to proceed to the Triskelion immediately." Not a moment after he finished speaking, four identical cars appeared out of nowhere- falling into a line with them smoothly.

Agent Mason turned to the man next to her with a wicked smile, her previous melancholy forgotten. "You're going to love this."

...

"So you know how to fly one of these things?" Steve asked skeptically from the cargo hold of the quinjet while Agent Mason lounged in the pilot's seat.

"Of course," she flashed him a grin over her shoulder, "Clint never lets me though, the only reason Natasha gets to is he knows she can kick his ass."

"It makes her feel better to be in control," the archer in question supplied as he boarded the jet, "she's a terrible backseat driver." His female counterpart cleared her throat behind him, and he quickly amended his statement. "And she can kick my ass. You," he pointed at the innocent-looking Mason, "up."

Natasha moved past Clint, making room for the rest of the team. She nudged Agent Mason's leg with one of her knees, ignoring the blonde's puppy-dog face with practiced ease. "Might I remind you that you never actually passed the practical aviation test?"

The younger girl gave an irritated huff and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "Might I remind you that I broke the record for the avionics theory assessment that stood for seventeen years?"

Clint chuckled to himself as he brushed past them both to start the pre-flight checks. "May was pissed about that for months."

"She warmed up to me eventually," Agent Mason frowned thoughtfully, "I think." Natasha rolled her eyes and pushed her out of the cockpit. "Fine, I'm going! Can you at least tell me where we're going?"

"Thor and Loki," Agent Mason looked questioningly back into the cargo hold where, sure enough, the Norse god of mischief was sitting, "found another Chitauri base location when they were translating the sphere. Fury wants us to handle it like the last one. Ops. set up a few different strategies depending on the situation when we get there."

"Yay, more creepy aliens," she made her way to the back of the plane with a sarcastic fist pump, taking the only empty seat between Thor and Steve. After she adjusted the harness and settled back with a sigh, Steve leaned closer to her.

"I thought you said you could fly this?"

Agent Mason met his slightly accusing look with an amused smirk. "Like I said, if you want honesty, you're working with the wrong people."

...

"Do you have a minute?" Agent Mason stopped Tony from exiting the quinjet with the rest of the passengers.

"'Course, Princess." Tony flashed her a grin before settling himself in one of the seats. She let Clint and Natasha past them with assurances they would join them for briefing in a moment, and then silently copied his pose directly across from him.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Agent Mason was studiously avoiding looking at the billionaire, instead she took interest in her clasped hands, "I may not have taken the Hippocratic Oath, but out of respect for you, I shouldn't have shared personal information I had know right to know in the first place." She sighed heavily when she finished, sneaking a glance at her companion through her eyelashes.

The last thing she expected was to see him smirking at her. "So I'm respectable now?" At her shocked expression, Tony chuckled. " Everything you said was true," He shrugged, "besides, second rule of being one of us, you need to be prepared give and take some serious insults."

"One of you?" Agent Mason's voice had taken on a distinctively squeaky tone.

"Yeah, an Avenger. Technically, you're still one group life-threatening situation behind the rest of us, but I'm going to overlook that because you dumped ice water on Reindeer Games' head. Plus, you have the first requirement down."

"And what's that?"

"Daddy issues," he frowned in thought, "Well, I suppose mommy issues too. We aren't that picky. Point is, you're stuck with us."

"Uh, thanks?"

"The pay's terrible, the coworkers are a nightmare, completely unproportional vacation time, and the working conditions are so not up to code; but the food's decent."

Agent Mason wrinkled her nose, "It sounds like we're corporate interns."

"Did I mention there's no dental?"

"I've heard some pretty crazy office stories, the bossman must turn a blind eye a lot." Agent Mason's voice was so nonchalant that it took Tony a moment to truly understand what she said.

His laugh reverberated in the small space, "I like you, kid," he clapped Agent Mason on the back- nearly knocking her over, "now we just need to work on your insults."

...

"Stark and I will go in here," Clint highlighted a window on the third floor of the old building on the hologram floating in front of him. "Nat and Thor here," a red mark appeared on a second story fire escape, "and Banner and Loki here," a green mark on a ground-level cargo door.

From the look on Clint's face and the paleness of Loki's, the last pairing was completely intentional.

"Rogers and Mason will wait for the all clear." Clint didn't need to look up to see that the latter was going to object, but being as experienced in this situation as he was, kept quiet.

"I don't need a human shield," she glanced sideways at Steve, "no offense."

"Fury wants to avoid what happened last time, understandable considering you once almost managed to get yourself killed walking across campus on a sunny day." Clint raised one eyebrow, daring her to argue.

"That's..." she frowned in defeat, "not the point."

"Do you realize just how many new regulations have been put into place since your first year at the Academy?"

"Not all of those were my fault."

...

"So how'd you convince Fury to let him tag along?" Agent Mason inclined her head towards Loki, who was being reacquainted with his spear- or rather, a replica sans glowing center.

"The Director's reasoning is beyond me, however, he mentioned that your word helped to sway his opinion. I once again owe you my thanks."

If his beaming smile made her blush, Agent Mason wouldn't admit it. She looked away, her hair covering half of her face under the guise of inserting her earpiece. "No problem."

"You have been a friend to both my brother and I, in a time where he especially was in need of one." He didn't seem like he was going to continue, but as the cargo hold of the quinjet cleared out, he leaned closer- shifting Mjolnir in his hands. "He may not seem like it, but Loki is..." He glanced up at Clint, the only other person in hearing range, "sensitive to his relationships with others. Your trust has made this easier for both of us, and for that I am grateful."

Agent Mason turned to look at him fully, her cheeks still tinged pink, "My word can't do much from here on out, he's going to have to earn the trust from others if he wants it. Starting today." She gestured towards the door of the quinjet, "We should go, they're probably waiting on us." She went to move past him, but was stopped by a gentle hand on her arm.

Before she could say anything, Thor's lips were brushing lightly against hers. It was extremely chaste, not lasting more than a moment, so by the time Agent Mason realized what was going on- it was already over.

"Um..." Thor must have found her embarrassment amusing, because he was smiling even wider. "T-that was nice." Thor's booming laugh filled the small space, and he moved his hand off of her forearm.

"I am glad you found it satisfactory."

"Can I ask what that was for?" Agent Mason seemed to be recovering from the shock of kissing a god quite nicely, although her cheeks were a deep scarlet.

Thor gave her a disarming grin, already moving to open the door. "For luck."

...

"It doesn't feel right."

"Hmm?" Agent Mason glanced back at Steve in the cargo hold from her position in the cockpit.

"Staying back here while everyone else does the fighting."

Agent Mason made a rather un-ladylike snort, "Welcome to my life." She turned back to the window, keeping watch for the backup signal in case their comms failed again.

"We're basically using them as cannon fodder. Who thought this was a good idea?"

"You're preaching to the choir," she held her hands up, "OPS people are barmy. If it makes you feel better, at least we didn't dress them up in red shirts first." Steve raised an eyebrow. "Oh come on! Star Trek?" When Steve still looked confused Agent Mason sat upright so she could look him in the eye. "Really? I mean yeah you were kind of... on ice, but it's not like you were in a cryotube for 300 years." Steve's eyebrow inched higher and Agent Mason sighed in exasperation, "The people in the red shirts always died, they were expendable... basically cannon fodder for effect."

"I don't think this really compares to a movie." Steve continued shuffling his shield between his hands.

"Actually, it was mostly a TV show. But you're right, all of this is like a messed up book." She paused, looking off into space thoughtfully, "But, Tony would be Kirk. It fits perfectly, a cocky womanizer who's loyal to a fault. Dr. Banner... obviously Bones. Both doctors, both friends to the protagonist, as it were. Natasha would be Uhura, kick- ass language expert- not to mention completely outnumbered by her male counterparts."

She scrunched up her nose in contemplation, "I guess I would be Spock." She seemed satisfied with her assessment and continued more confidently, "I've got the mind-meld down pat, and you have no idea how much sarcasm I can fit into one eyebrow raise."

"I have a pretty good idea." Steve was desperately trying not to laugh outright.

"You..." Agent Mason ignored his comment, "Khan. But not the one from the original series, but the new Abramsverse movies. He's less creepy. Khan has a couple hundred more years on ice, but he's protective of the people he cares about and he and Kirk never really... hit it off. Besides, you both had genetics voodoo done."

"What are you doing?" Steve silently congratulated himself on managing to time the question while Agent Mason was taking a breath. He was supposedly genetically enhanced, but he didn't know if he could talk that long without needing to breathe.

"Talking?"

"You know I have no idea what you're saying. Although, I'm pretty sure you just made fun of me."

"Not a joke, and observation- and a pretty accurate one if I do say so myself."

"That's the thing, I've been around you enough to know you aren't afraid to speak your mind- but you don't say anything unless there's a purpose to it. It's not like you to go on about... a television show?"

Agent Mason tipped and imaginary glass towards him in a mock salute, "Look who's making observations now. You were making me nervous, I was distracting you until we got the signal. How did I do?"

"Not bad," Steve chuckled and pointed to his earpiece for emphasis, "but we haven't gotten the signal yet." They both jumped when the aforementioned device transmitted the voice of the world's most arrogant billionaire directly into their ears.

"All clear in here, Princess. Legolas is searching the rest of the building, but he says you can come in now."

"Aye, Captain."

...

"Why couldn't they just use a laptop?" Agent Mason's muttered words echoed around the cavernous room, and brought the sound of Tony's derisive snort back.

"Not exactly portable, is it?"

"Good thing I came prepared," she waved a thumb drive dramatically, "I wonder if their security sucks as much as their hardware."

"Have at it, Legolas is doing a sweep of the upper floors so Nat wants us to see if we can lift some weapons off of them." Tony gestured one metal hand to the few dozen Chitauri littered about the room.

"Yes, Captain." Agent Mason started to pick her way towards the outdated electronics.

"I'm not Capcicle!" Tony's befuddled look was made all the more amusing framed by his helmet.

Not bothering to answer, Agent Mason started walking backwards- giving him a mock salute. The effect, however, was ruined when she promptly tripped over an outstretched, and slightly charred, Chitauri arm. She quickly righted herself, ignoring the laughter behind her in favor of keeping her balance. She was only a few feet from her goal when a particularly well-hidden arrow appeared under her foot. What was equally surprising was the blue-clad hand that appeared at her elbow. The owner of said arm helped her onto the raised platform that was, surprisingly, clear of aliens.

"I thought Barton was exaggerating before, but now I kind of want to hear those stories about you at the Academy." Steve stayed on the main floor, putting him still just above the blonde's eye level.

Agent Mason used this to her advantage, leveling him with one of her best 'looks'. "We can't all have enhanced reflexes."

...

"I'm through their security, but apparently aliens have never heard of USB ports." Agent Mason blew a stray curl out of her face.

"Is that a problem?" Steve was idly playing with one of the Chitauri blasters a few feet away.

"Not really, lucky for us- I'm a human fiber optic. Can you hand me the flash drive?" She waited patiently with her hand out, eyes still on the monitor. When she didn't feel the metal slide into her hand, she sighed. "The small black thing I asked you to hold?" Steve silently handed her the device.

"Cap, can you give us a hand over here?" Natasha and Loki were, rather unsuccessfully, attempting to pry open a side door.

"I'll just...go." Agent Mason waved her hand at him distractedly, already putting her hand on the panel she had accessed. Steve waited a few moments, and after seeing her vacant look- decided it was safe to leave.

...

"I don't think it opens from this side..." The strength of a super-soldier had not made much of a difference in opening the troublesome door.

"Why would they-" Natasha was cut off when the door swung open easily, admitting over twenty Chitauri. Behind them, they could hear their teammates' surprised shouts as aliens appeared through previously-unseen entryways.

"I wouldn't move if I were you!" The so-called Avengers turned toward the voice, which belonged to a Chitauri with a small box attached to his neck, directly over his voice box. Admittedly, no one paid much attention to it, more focused on the blaster he had resting against a still-dazed Agent Mason's temple.

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