Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
“Gutierrez, do you have the position?” The deep voice echoed through my headset. I typed on my laptop, sitting inside my office.
“Yes, it appears that Mr. Stark is in Inglewood, not Malibu; he’s currently still in flight,” I responded. “You are fairly close to him, sir, oh, and he’s stopped. Randy’s Donuts, just off 405, La Cienega Boulevard.”
“Right, I’ll call if you are needed again,” Fury said, hanging up.
“Geez, what can a girl do to get a thank you?” I said, pushing back from my desk chair and standing up, pushing my headset mic up. “I’m working, despite child labor laws, and located Tony Stark for you, but no one appreciates what I’m doing.”
“For what it’s worth,” A voice said from my office door. I turned around, Clint. “I appreciate your work, Audrey.”
“Thanks, but don’t just barge in here. I’ve got classified documents and shit.” I walked back to my desk, closing folders and placing them back into my filing cabinets.
“Language, kid. You’re what, 8?”
“12, but smarter than you, probably more mature.”
“Gutierrez, can you test this sample digitally?” A female voice spoke to me. I pulled my mic down and sat back at my desk.
“Sweat sample? Yeah, piece of cake. 3-2-1, holy shit.” I looked at the results as they appeared on my screen.
“Language, kid.” Agent Romanoff said. “But what?”
“There’s a whole lot of palladium in this sample, probably more in a blood sample.” I swiped through the chemical formula, watching as the palladium molecules cut through the sweat. “You got the serum I made already in him?”
I got no response, which means the answer was yes. “Thank you, Agent Romanoff.”
“Of course, kid.” She hung up, and I put my headset mic back up.
“Anyway, you here for your mission brief, Clint?” I turned back to the archer standing at my doorway. I opened a folder sitting on my desk, reviewing what had happened in New Mexico.
I closed the file, passing it over to Clint. “Good luck, it sounds intense over there.”
“Thanks, kid.” Clint pressed his hand on my head, ruffling my hair.
Clint walked out and I slunk back into my chair. I reopened my files on the desk, looking at mine. There was too much information about myself that was redacted, even for my clearance level. There would be more if I were clearance level 7, like Agents Barton and Romanoff. Even if I knew some of the redacted info, like my training and former alias, there was info in the file I didn’t know. My place of birth, my citizenship, and my father.
Agent: Gutierrez, Audrey Danielle DOB: 04/10/1999
Last Known Address: ███ █ ████ ████ Takoma, Washington, D.C.
Status: Active-Agent
Agent No: 98
Document Citizenship: United States ████, ██████ Title: Agent - Level 8
Place of Birth: ██████, ████ Height: 5’2”
Race: Latin American Weight: 140 lbs
Gender: Female Hair: Black
Dental: N/A Eyes: Brown
Languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Xhosa
Identifiable Markings: numerous knife and bullet scars along torso, ‘23’ tattooed on back of neck
Family: █████ ████████ ██████ (father), Lupita Gutierrez (mother, deceased)
Education: 3 Doctorates (Psychology, Chemistry, Engineering)
Current Employment: SHIELD Agent Alias: ADG ██████ (formerly)
Mission Qualifications: 3 Doctorates, trained in █████████ and █████████████ by █████ , and ███ ███ ████
I turned and tapped on my computer’s keyboard, clicking open the video cameras to Tony Stark’s home in Malibu that I had hacked into last week. Despite how much of a genius he was, it was almost laughable how easy it was for me to get into his stuff.
I watched as Coulson left a briefcase full of Howard Stark’s things at Tony’s feet.
The week was long. From Tony Stark creating a new element and locking Justin Hammer in prison, a god from space destroying a town in the desert, and Dr. Bruce Banner destroying Harlem, it’ll be a fun clean-up operation.
A noise permeated through my office. My pager is going off.
‘Agent Gutierrez, you are needed in NYC, wheels up in 5.’ Director Fury sent.
I suited up in my bathroom, strapping my knives to my suit just in case. No danger that I was currently aware of, but I hardly ever left the safety of Washington, D.C. anymore.
I got onto the jet, calculating the time. Roughly an hour, maybe 45 minutes if they push it.
They pushed it. I got off the Quinjet 44 minutes later. I walked down the stairs and into the medical wing of our base in Manhattan.
It didn’t look like the medwing, not anymore.
Agents were walking in and out, nodding to me as they passed. At least some of them recognized me as their superior (cough, Romanoff, cough).
Fury was standing, overseeing the agents changing the interior. “So, you needed me down here to preview old-fashioned renovations?”
“No, Gutierrez, I needed you here because we found him.” Fury turned around, allowing me to see past him to a man lying unconscious on the bed. I knew who he was, how couldn’t I have? I was raised extremely sheltered, but even I knew who Captain America was (although, when you work with Phil Coulson, there’s no chance you don’t know about him).
“At last,” I smile, then notice the decor. “You want me to brief him, cause that will most likely develop extreme WAD. He also may be extremely vulnerable to PTSD, SUD, and several other disorders.”
“I don’t want you to brief him, at least not yet.” Fury nodded to the radio and an agent dressed in an old Nurse’s uniform. “This is all here to make him believe it’s still the 40s, We’ll start slowly with him. You have a Doctorate in Psychology, use it.”
“Yes, sir.”
I sat outside the medical room designated for Captain Rogers, then an alert sounded. He broke containment.
I ran into the room, he leaped out the window. I followed after, landing in the street and rolling to protect my bones.
I chased after him into traffic, and he stopped and looked at the scene of Times Square.
“At ease, soldier,” I said, holding my arms up as a black SUV pulled up behind me. SHIELD. Fury stepped out. “I’m Agent Audrey Gutierrez, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, SHIELD for short.”
“I’m the director, Nick Fury.” He put one of his arms over my shoulders, his palm resting on me. “We won the war, but as you can see, you missed quite a lot. Agent Gutierrez will be here with any questions you may have. At ease.”
Chapter 2: The Take Over
Chapter Text
Everything was going as it should have. I triple checked it. Hell, I might have even checked it a fourth time.
Director Fury was on his way to the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility. Agent Hill, Agent Coulson, and Agent Barton were all present, all responding. Not mocking my paranoia. Active, chipper even.
No one blamed me for being paranoid, especially when the energy levels were that high.
But they were calm, almost too calm.
I had the display on one of my monitors in my DC office, mirrored directly from Selvig’s. The energy levels spiked once again, up to a billion joules, before leveling down to two hundred million joules.
A ping sounded from the pager on the other side of my desk. I pushed off, my desk chair sliding me down the room so I could see the screen.
‘Just Landed, Status Report Imminent.’ From the Director.
I pushed myself to the middle section of my desk, reserved for the various security connections I had access to/hacked into, depending on the mission.
I navigated the UI of the SHIELD security feeds, pulling up the JDEMFs, letting the loading process run from the two thousand five hundred mile distance. After a second or two, I was in.
The building was in chaos. I knew it was, but this just confirmed it. The energy spikes had been happening since September, but they’ve increased in magnitude and decreased in time between spikes.
Over the past eight months, we’ve recorded enough energy from the Tesseract to fund a space mission for the entire planet. From Jupiter and back, 13 times.
But the current status was clear, even without the Director stating it. Evacuation.
I pulled the headset off my monitor, turning it on and pulling the mic down to my lips. I typed quickly, connecting myself to the channel.
“You’re late with your status report, director.” I started, beeping in my other ear, distracting me. The other monitor, energy levels climbing, is more subtle this time. “Selvig wasn’t issued the go-ahead for testing.”
“It’s not in testing, Agent Coulson has informed me that the Tesseract turned itself on.” Fury’s voice echoed in my right ear.
“Initiate further evacuation, at least to the Arizona border,” I command, despite Fury being my superior. “There is one incident like this listed in the files for Project Pegasus,” I turn my chair to the file open on my desk. June 22nd, 1989. Mostly redacted, but does have the radius of a Tesseract-based explosion. “The only data we have on a Tesseract explosion is around 150 meters. But I recommend getting the hell out of dodge as fast as possible, sir.”
“Noted, standby for further instructions.”
The line went silent. I sighed, pushing my mic up toward my forehead.
I waited. The lab level wasn’t clearing; in fact, it was getting more crowded as Fury went down.
I watched from the cameras. Fury and Selvig were talking. Agent Barton was in the nest. Agent Hill was loading weapons into the evacuation trucks.
After a short while, Barton climbed from his high point down to the main floor.
The beeping got louder, and I turned to the monitor. Two billion joules and counting.
I pulled my mic down. “Sir, Sir!” I exclaimed. “Time to go, get Barton, Selvig, and all the agents out of there immediately. Three—”
A noise repeated through my headset, and a blue portal opened directly in front of the Tesseract.
I cut myself off.
A man stepped out, pale but familiar. Loki.
I switched channels, up to Agent Hill. “Ma’am, Asgardian E.T. has breached. Proceed with Evacuation Protocol. Don’t get beamed up.”
“You sure, Gutierrez?” Hill asked, continuing to command agents loading Phase 2 weaponry into trucks. “I have orders from the Director.”
“And I have eyes on the Director, Alien’s standing right in front of him. I know you outrank me, but trust my judgement, Agent Hill.”
“Yes, ma’am, over and out.”
Silent gunfire rings out over the camera footage. I open the PA system for the facility, pressing my fingerprint into the holoscreen to the right of my keyboard. “Agent override, Level 8. Guterriez, Audrey, D.”
“Continue evacuation, minimum distance 5 Kilometers. Recommended distance, 500 Kilometers.”
I turned off the PA system, switching my focus back to the security footage.
Agent Barton got tapped on the chest by the pointed edge of Loki’s spear. I held my breath, I’m not gonna lose my best sniper. Not here, not now. I don’t wanna have to make the house call to Laura.
Barton’s stance shifted. The blade didn’t pierce his chest, and he put his earpiece away.
On the other side of the room, Fury was grabbing the tesseract and putting it back into the temporary containment case.
Fury and Loki had a conversation I was unable to hear. Selvig got the same treatment as Barton. My pager went off again.
‘Gonna blow, regroup with the team. Worst case, Avengers Initiative. You get Captain Rogers.’
The energy signature kept rising. Roughly 2 minutes til the density would be too high for gravity to keep the portal floating, pulling it and everything around it into the Earth’s core.
I moved over to the mirrored monitor, typing and attempting to shut down the portal, despite Selvig not activating it. I opened the interface, coding as fast as my fingers would allow me to type, overriding the orders and about to send an emergency shutoff protocol.
Then, my screens cut out, all of them. A message appeared on my center monitor. ‘>>--------->’
“Damn it.” I cursed, a virus through a USB arrow. Why the hell did Clint fire one?
I tapped on my headset, but only heard static.
I was cut off, completely, from the facility.
The list was simple. As soon as I was able to make contact with Director Fury (who managed to escape the facility while Loki escaped), I was given my orders. I go to Brooklyn for an Iced Americano, Coulson goes to Manhattan for a Tin Man, and Romanoff goes to India for a Rage Doctor. We gather the members while Fury tries to get permission from the World Security Council.
I could hear the punching from outside the gym. It only got louder as I approached the doors to the main ring. And I could almost feel Coulson’s envy of my position as Cap’s handler.
I opened the door just as the bag got torn and burst all over the ground. Steve Rogers sighed, putting his arms down and hooking a new bag onto the chain. Yeah, I lucked out on the asset I had to recruit.
“Trouble sleeping?” I asked, pacing toward the veteran.
“I slept for seventy years, ma’am.” Steve started punching again. “I think I’ve had my fill.”
“You should be out then, seeing the world, celebrating.”
Steve stopped his movements, stepping back from the bag and toward the bench. I sat down right after Steve did, beside him.
“I went under, the world was at war,” Steve started, peeling the bandages off his hands. “I wake up, they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.”
“We made mistakes, a whole lot of ‘em. And they’d rather not tell us what they were,” I glance over at him, turning my torso slightly to appear more open to him. “Some of them were recent.”
“You here with a mission, ma’am?”
“I am.” I pull a manila folder from the inside pocket of my jacket.
“Trying to get me back in the world?” He asked.
“Nah, if I were doing that, I’d send you to Disney World,” I smirked. “We’re trying to save it.” I passed Steve the file I curated for him on the tesseract.
“Hydra’s secret weapon.”
“Howard Stark fished it up, looking for you post-war. Started working on it, we haven’t stopped. He thought it was the key to sustainable energy, we’re lucky he’s a Tesla and not an Edison, cause he wasn’t wrong.”
“Who took it?”
“Loki Odinson.” I started, knowing this case wasn’t one I knew detail-to-detail. It was Coulson’s case initially; I just assigned my agents where they seemed to fit. “He’s from space. We’ll have to give you a helluva briefing. The world’s gotten a lot stranger than you already know.”
“At this point, I don’t think anything can surprise me,” Steve muttered, shaking his head while scanning the files.
My smirk deepened. “Ten bucks says you’re wrong. Debriefing packet’s already at your apartment, wheels up at JFK at 0100.”
Steve stands up, putting away his equipment. Then he turns to leave.
“Anything we should know about the Tesseract?” I ask as he walks toward the door.
“You should’ve left it in the ocean.”
I nod, my face falling flat. I left a few paces between us, flipping the gym’s lights off. “JFK, 0100. Be there, we pay a helluva lot better than the Army ever did.”