The Mission

Chapter Eight

Loki smirked as Evelynn screamed. “I can make the pain stop you know,” his smooth voice whispered as he approached her. “All you need to do is give me what I want.”

“And what is that?” Evelynn seethed.

“My mind control is quite effective, but yours, oh dear. When you’re angry, you can freeze an entire city, control all of the Avengers if need be. Imagine how easy it would be to rule these pathetic humans, with you by my side and this pitiful Brotherhood of Mutants doing our bidding.”

“I won’t help you.”

“Ah, but who will help you get revenge on my dear brother? He is a demi-god after all.”

“I’m not in it for revenge.”

“No, but you were once…and those temptations never really fade do they?” He was circling her. “Take a look at your friends,” he motioned to the Avengers still fighting against the Brotherhood. “Do you really think they will win? They are horribly outmatched and out…gunned, shall we say. I offer you freedom from these wretched humans. I offer you life!”

“I’ve got you monologue-ing, Loki. Didn’t they teach you in villain school not to do that?” The scepter was no longer in his hands but hers. Evelynn fired a single shot and knocked him off his feet. His head smashed against the wall, knocking him unconscious. She reached out her hand and pulled the red helmet from Magneto’s unconscious head to her. Into her comm she said, “Loki’s down. I have his scepter.”

Fury spoke into her comm. “I’m rounding the helicopter to pick you up, Agent.” The tone of his voice indicated that he recognized her coding. “Captain, assemble the Avengers. You need to be off of the ground in T-minus three minutes.”

“Copy that.”

“Agents, initiate order 626 on my mark.” Fury was giving directions as you handed over the scepter and the helmet.

“What’s order 626?” Captain America asked as he hopped onto the helicopter and extended his hand to Natasha to help her onto it as well.

Nicholas Fury ignored the Captain’s question. He continued to bark orders. Once again, Fury had compartmentalized the mission. “Agent Hill, are you in place?”

“Yes, sir. Waiting on her.”

Fury turned to face Evelynn. “You’re up.” He circled the helicopter around the battlefield. Evelynn closed her eyes and outstretched her hands. True focus is between rage and serenity, she reminded herself. This is the humane way to stop it all. Freeze them for containment, no unnecessary deaths.

But she couldn’t focus, she couldn’t find it. “Now would be a good time for your magic trick, Evelynn.” Fury growled. Her eyes shot open and she glared at the director. True focus…she prompted herself again and closed her eyes once again. But she couldn’t shake the image of Storm’s death. She could feel them freezing one by one. “We need them alive, Agent.” The screams of several of the members of the Brotherhood drew her back towards focus.

“You’ve got the rage part,” Steve’s gruff voice whispered to her. “Now you need the serenity.” Several more mutants screamed as she tried to find her serenity. Magneto slowly regained his consciousness and jerked the helicopter, throwing Evelynn off balance. She squealed and Natasha reached out to pull her back onto the copter.

The engines stalled as Magneto continued to manipulate the helicopter. He wasn’t prepared to go down without a fight. She was a strong telepath, but didn’t have anywhere near the strength that Charles had or that Phoenix had. She couldn’t freeze all of the Brotherhood and fight against him at the same time. They both knew it.

RAAAAWWWWRRRR! Hulk picked up Magneto like a rag doll and threw him forcefully into a nearby wall. Losing his focus allowed for the chopper’s engines to restart and Fury piloted it back to a safe altitude. Hulk stomped over to Magneto’s body, picked him up by the collar, and threw him across the way into another wall. Magneto struggled to get back up before passing out a second time, releasing his hold on the helicopter completely.

“I can’t hold them forever, Fury!”

“Agent Hill? Status?”

Agent Hill fired the specially designed handcuffs at the frozen mutants. “Almost clear. Just a few more seconds.”

“On Agent Hill’s command, all agents sweep the area. Containment only.”

“Ready.”

“Let them go,” Fury commanded. As soon as she did, the cuffed delivered a low shock to all of the Brotherhood, stunning them. Should any of them recover, Hill would simply reapply the shock as the rest of the Agents brought them in for processing.

Evelynn marched up to the mini-cockpit area. “Take the chopper down.” She commanded to Fury.

“You are not in a position to give commands.” Ignoring his rebuttal, she took control of the helicopter herself and hovered it above Storm’s body. Evelynn hopped out of the helicopter. Steve followed and reached to scoop up the body.

“I can do it myself,” Evelynn whispered.

“I know you can. I’m your back up, remember?” He cradled Storm’s limp body and stepped onto the helicopter. He placed her onto the floor, crossing her hands in front of her abdomen. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful.

Evelynn wiped away tears before they could flow down her cheeks. They had become her family and they were all but gone. Only Logan remained and he was god-knows where searching for answers. She sat cross-legged next to Storm’s body.

***
Fury entered the room where several agents were working on the properties of the helmet. He had just returned for the World Security Council. The mutants in custody were being release under high probationary status, an elite agent being assigned as a parole officer for each. Several of the higher risk mutants were placed in a maximum security SHIELD prison, each one specially designed to combat their individualized mutation.

He had seen some pretty outrageous outfits in his time, and Nicholas Fury could tell by the look of this helmet that no one, not even those in the position of Magneto, would subject themselves to where such a helmet unless it possessed some defensive or offensive powers against his fellow mutants.

Magneto was in another plastic prison, still unconscious from Hulk’s blows. When he would awaken several hours later, Fury would question him about the helmet.

“Sir,” Fury turned to Agent Hill. “Is keeping them here any better than what William Striker did?”

“We won’t be experimenting on them, Agent Hill,” Fury assured. “They’re prisoners in a much fancier prison, that’s all.”

Agent Hill let out a sigh of relief. “Good. The last thing we need is to be exposed for experimenting on mutants. We would make more enemies than I care to think about.”

She was right of course, but SHIELD always had enemies.
***
Evelynn alternated between delivering hash kicks to the heavy bag and a few good hooks and jabs. Faintly a ding from the elevator sounded behind her. Captain Rogers entered the gym. “Your right hook could use a little work,” he jested as he approached her in the ring.

Without warning, she pivoted on her heel and knocked him square in the jaw. “How’s that for a right hook? Huh? Go ahead, hit me back. I dare you.”

Although she hadn’t knocked him to the ground, the punch had thrown him off-guard. Re-stabling himself, he stated. “Miss, I’m not in the business of hitting a woman.” Evelynn just glared at him, partially hurt that he wouldn’t take up her challenge. “I don’t think I deserved to be the target of your anger. I’m only here to help.”

“You can’t bring her back. You can’t bring any of them back.”

“And you can’t bring anyone from my past back, yet here we are.”

For a moment she felt a wave of guilt wash over her. He was right, and he was in the same position as she was, but he wasn’t being a baby about it. She needed to be strong. She felt tears welling up in her eyes and she turned back to the heavy bag and started jabbing away.

“I’m not weak,” she panted between punches.

“I don’t recall even thinking that, miss.”

“You know what I’d love to do more than anything?” She turned to face Steve. He shrugged nonchalantly. /This,/ she closed the gap between them and kissed him gently on the lips. She snaked her hands up to his neck. Startled at first, Steve didn’t respond, but he eased into the touch of her lips against his, her tongue slipping into his mouth. His hands rested on her hips and he pulled her closer. /Please let me forget./

Steve pulled away and Evelynn moaned in protest. His eyes were dilated and his hands held her firmly in place, but when she reached up to kiss him again her resisted. “You are not in the right state of mind for this, ma’am.”

Evelynn pouted, knowing that there was no way to change his mind freely. She didn’t want to use her powers on him, for fear that his treating her like a regular person streak would be ruined if she did.

“You’re probably right,” she whispered. “But I could really use a hug.”

“I happen to be an expert in that field,” Steve winked at her. He pulled her against his chest, tucking her head under his chin. She slid her arms between them and resting them on his chest, feeling his heart beat pump against her fingertips.

“How do you handle it? Feeling alone?”

“It was much harder before. When I first woke up, everyone I knew was dead or in a nursing home. Everything was different and at first I resisted the change,” As Steve spoke, she slipped her hands around his back and squeezed him tightly. The heat radiating off of his body was just as comforting as the embrace itself and she wasn’t ready for him to pull away. “My team has become my new family. They helped me through a lot of tough times. I actually knew you were coming in to “work” with me. Natasha had suggested I see someone.”

“Seeing someone with similar symptoms and problems might not always be the best solution,” Evelynn pointed out.

“No, but you also don’t know that I saw a shrink for several months after the Battle of New York. You’ve been far more helpful than the shrink was.”

“Did you ever feel like giving up?” Evelynn’s voice was barely audible.

“Yeah. I felt like I was no longer Steve Rogers and I was just Captain America. And you know who pulled me outta that slump?” Against his chest, Evelynn shook her head. “Tony Stark did.” Evelynn pulled away in disbelief. “He said ‘I’ll tell you what I told Bruce. This little glowing light, it protects me from the scrapnel that fights every day to get into my heart. I was meant to die in that bunker and Stark Industries would still be producing weapons of mass destruction. I was given a second chance. So were you.’”

“That’s the nicest thing to come out of Tony’s mouth I think.”

“I’m sure he says nice things to Pepper.” Steve speculated.

/I’m sure he does nice things to Pepper too./ She had meant to keep that thought to herself. When she saw Steve’s reaction she blushed. “Sorry. I know you hate the thought-speech. I’ll stay verbal,” she tried to divert the conversation onto the method of speaking rather than what she just said.

Steve kissed her forehead. “I don’t want you to do anything you’d regret.”

“Please don’t treat me like a child. You may be ninety-five but I’m a grown woman. I’ve not been a child in eons.”

“I’m treating you like the respectable woman you are,” Steve countered. “Don’t think I don’t want it. I haven’t had any in…” he trailed off, blushing. “But now is not the time, or the place.”
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Thank you so much for reading! I'm torn because I feel as though I can totally end the fic here, but I do have some fluff and smut and such written that logically go after this chapter...they just don't progress a plot any further, so I'm hesistant to post it. If you wanna read some cute Cap'n fluff and such, let me know. :D Thanks again for readings! xxbesosss