Steve's POV

Whatever radiation that small chunk of rock had was powerful. The next morning Scarrlet wasn't the only one sick, it had taken out Peter, and Nat. All of them had quarantined themselves in their rooms, much to Fury's frustration, the team was down to less than half its size. The common consensus was that everyone wished Bruce was here, he was good with that kind of stuff, but he was still out in the field trying to solve biological weapon problems.

So it was only Thor, Tony, and I who were well enough to do anything. Hill had managed to organize all of the newly collected radioactive material by region of location, or where they were found. In all their were ten that had been proven to house clues. The only way to make sure the rest of us didn't come down with illness we had to where yellow hazmat suits. The only problem was finding ones that fit Thor and I.

After a lot of rummaging into the deepest darkest corners of the tower they were finally discovered. The yellow rubber didn't seem like it would be that effective, and yet it was our best shot. I could imagine a ridiculous tv show title. Rubber versus Radiation.

Once fully dressed and protected we were allowed into the small chamber that held the pitch black chunks of metal and rock. A few agents wore similar suits and walked around with gadgets of all sorts monitoring and observing the strange substances.

"Alright let's get started and hope we don't start puking like the others." Tony said cracking his knuckles.

"How reassuring." Thor remarked sarcastically. Nevertheless we made our way to the first of many stones. A note had been taped to the table beneath where it rested. It was labeled:

Clue #1

The dead wait for the living.

"Best clue ever!" Tony rolled his eyes. "I mean seriously what stupid person writes that. It gives us nothing!"

"Maybe it'll make sense later." I reasoned moving on to the next one.

Clue #2

Four are their but three are known.

"Um. Maybe the next." Thor tried.

Clue #3

The throne of an honest man.

"I quit." Tony replied pretending to leave before turning around and coming back.

"Maybe we need the others." Thor proposed.

"They're sick." I sighed turning over one of the rocks.

"I can still help!" Peter's voice interjected and he stood off to the side sniffling.

"What? No go back to bed!" Tony said waving him off.

"No way man!" Peter argued. "I finally see some action and you want to get rid of me? Besides Nat and Scar wanted me to make sure you'd didn't blow anything up!"

"They could have at the least sent Vision." Thor said glancing at the clues and still trying to decipher them.

"No he's taking care of everyone." Peter said before clasping his hands together and making his eyes big."Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase!"

"No." Tony said.

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"PLEASE?" Peter yelled loudly.

"Fine." Tony said throwing his hands up in the air. "Get in here Bug Boy."

I had never seen Peter move so fast before, he quite literally dove into one of the suits and then burst into the quarantined area with a large smile on his face. "Let's science!"

Peter ran over to the first chunk of material and picked it up. He turned it over in his hands and read the first clue. "Hey this is cool!"

"Yeah but do you have an idea as to what it means?" I asked watching Peter with a light smile. Tony glanced at me with a look that read "there is no way he knows what this means".

"Hey I have an idea!" Peter said before pausing for a moment. "Woah head rush."

"Take it easy but what have you got?" I asked. Peter cracked his knuckles before sitting down at one of the computers and typing with lightning speed.

"Alright thanks search engines!" Peter said happily spinning in the chair to look at us. "Behold the power of Google."

Stepping closer I saw a picture on the screen of his computer. It was a bunch of skulls stacked high into a wall with a paragraph below.

"Who's monkeycheeseballs_6?" Thor asked.

"Oh that's the blogger." Peter explained. He used the mouse to highlight a section of the text. It read:

"The Paris Catacombs are a popular sight for most. They house a deep and dark history of the world. For some it's easy to go down in their depths with a tour guide. For others it's simply not possible, fear the thief, of an exceptional experience. For many it is seen as a transition between life and death. Where the dead wait for the living to enter their realm. But that's not all; many theories center on this historic site. The most chilling is dark and horrifying envolving lost film, and a lost tourist. ( find out more at this link) ~monkeycheeseballs_6

"The Paris catacombs?" Tony asked. "Are you sure? There are lots of other places too. Like what about a famous church...or what about some sort of funeral place?"

"Excuse me miss where was clue number one found?" Peter asked a passing agent.

"In France." She said casually before going about her business.

"So you really think it's as easy as a Google answer and some random blog?" I asked still a little unsure.

"Nothing in this universe is random." Peter said.

"Wise words for someone small." Thor mused patting Peter on the back. "But my instincts say to trust him."

"See? Even the God thinks I'm right." Peter smirked raising an eyebrow at Tony.

"Fine we can go to France." Tony sighed. "But if you're wrong no lab privileges for a week!"

"We can't go until everyone is recovered." I said resting a hand on Toby's shoulder. "But maybe we can relax a little while we're their?"

"That sounds wonderful." Thor thundered. "Now how about we get out of these rubber clothes?"

"I'm with you on that." Tony agreed as the four of us left the quarantined area to change from, as Thor had said, our rubber clothes.

When Fury heard news of the discovery he was reluctant at first. He thought we'd all teamed up to get a vacation, but after a moment more of Peter's rambling, he conceded the point. We'd be leaving tomorrow granted the others were healthy. Tony escorted Peter back to his room and put him on bed arrest. Basically Peter wasn't allowed to leave his room until he was "unsickified".

That was Tony's way of showing his secretly tender heart that cared for the well being of others. Thor busied himself with talking to some of the new recruits and telling tails of his time on Asgard leaving me to fend for myself.

I made my way to my bedroom hoping Nat would be in there but sure enough she wasn't and she was probably off doing stuff she wasn't supposed to. The thing was, she hated being sick, not the way others would be though. She could handle the actual part of being sick fairly well but she absolutely despised being treated like a kid because of it.

With a sigh I moved on to Scar's room where I knew Scar would be trapped from the fact that Vision had been keeping a watchful eye on her. And when Vision wasn't, Peter was. I couldn't help but find it slightly amusing. Knocking once I waited for a response and when I didn't hear one I opened the door carefully.

The last time someone had barged into Scar's room they'd ended up leaving a body sized dent in the wall. It just so happened to be Thor shaped. Scarrlet sat on her bed looking better than before while Vision moved about the room tidying things up. And surprisingly Nat was there too chilling in a chair. All three of them had suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked at me with strange expressions.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Nothing." Scarrlet said quickly. I frowned unsure as to what was going on.

"Oh I get it. You guys were talking about me." I said thinking I'd picked up on the social cues.

"You know you're still as socially awkward as the day I first met you." Nat said with a small smile.

"I try." I said tucking my hands in my pockets. "I was just letting you guys know that-"

"Peter figured out what the first clue meant and now we have to go to Paris for the catacombs." Vision finished for me.

"Uh, yeah." I laughed.

"Sorry it's a habit." He said and if he could've blushed I assumed he would be. He and Scar had a habit of using their mind powers to talk to one another and they'd gotten bad about finishing not only each others sentences but everyone else's as well.

"It's fine. And I convinced Tony to treat it as a mini vacation." I said proudly. Any shot we had at actually relaxing and exploring the territory of a mission was a miracle.

"Awesome." Scarrlet smiled excitedly and if I had blinked I would have missed the small little glance she and Nat shared. I could only figure it was some sort of inside joke or something of the sort.

"That means you have to get better." Vision said his voice always calm and calculated.

"I'm not the one who brought radioactive material to earth and to the tower." Scarrlet crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Fair enough." Vision conceded the point. He avoided arguments as much as possible which was frustrating sometimes.

"He is right though." I agreed. "Which means you are on bed arrest like Peter."

"Oh no I'm not." Nat argued. "I am fine. And you can't make me."

"Yes I can." With that I picked her up easily and slung her over my shoulder.

"You suck." She pouted.

"Yeah but you still love me." I laughed as did Scarrlet and Vision. She didn't put up much of a fight unlike a few other times. Once it was literally like talking to a five year old.

"You know it's actually kind of nice up here." She laughed as I stepped into the room.

"Oh so now you don't want me to put you down?" I asked raising an eyebrow even if she couldn't see.

"No I still want to be set down I'm just saying it's not a bad view." And that's when I realized what she was talking about.

"You're talking about my butt aren't you?" I asked my cheeks flaring slightly.

"Yep." She said and I could hear the smile in her voice. With a roll of the eyes I set her down and she immediately curled up on the bed and nestled under the covers.

"I knew you were sicker than you thought." I crossed my arms. She only ever slept when she was really sick.

"Oh shut up. I'm just tired!" She said throwing a pillow at me. "I stayed up super late reading."

"And whose fault was that?" I sat next to her and she just sighed pressing her face into the pillow.

"Mine." Was her muffled response. She reached out with one hand and laced her fingers with mine and tucked her other arm underneath the pillow.

"If you fall asleep with your face in the pillow you'll suffocate." I laughed and she just groaned moving her head so she could look at me.

"You worry so much." She said with a small smile. I laughed as she closed her eyes and slung her arm around me. I ran my fingers through her hair and just sat their as she eventually drifted off to sleep.

"Everyone please move to the lower levels of the building." Maria's voice came over the intercom snapping me awake. I hadn't realized I'd dozed off but I was now alert sitting bolt upright. Nat startled awake also.

"What did they do now?" She glowered the two of us getting up to find out what the problem was.

The halls were full of people calmly walking to the lifts. Tony walked past quickly with his suit gloves on looking stressed.

"What happened?" I demanded matching his stride.

"Something bad." Was all Tony said. He was walking briskly back to the quarantine zone. My nerves spiked probably at an unhealthy rate.

"The beacon pieces aren't stable anymore. It's like the first one we had when Peter touched it and was blasted back about ten feet. Only there's a twist." Tony explained. We rounded the corner and I may as well have had heart attack. There was a violent purple glow and on the floor around the beacon pieces were three unconscious agents.

The strange black hunks of material were vibrating on the tables. And the purple aura was only growing.

"Tony the readings are insane! I don't know how this is possible the stabilizing conditions haven't changed." Peter said flipping through programs.

"Way to go Stark!" Nat grumbled she disregarded the quarantine warning and grabbed two of the agents dragging them out and away from the fuss. I took care of the third.

"It's getting worse." Tony said angrily he held out his hands and a gray spray came from the gloves. "Neutralizing spray."

"It's still not working." Peter said. By now the others had gathered looking none too happy. There was the sound as if electricity were humming in the air when all of the lights went out at once. All that illuminated the room was an eerie purple glow.

"Vis!" It was Scars voice followed by a burst of red and then a loud thud. I could hear the sound of feet thudding on the ground. I caught the glimpse of two flashing eyes followed by a yelp from Peter.

Nat cursed and soon we were standing back to back trying to piece out what was happening in the dark. Visions bright gold beam split open the dark for a brief moment and I saw a figure disappear from sight before they were hit. Thor called out angrily before bashing his hammer on the ground and sending out an electric shock wave. The blue light illuminated the room and at last I was able to gather a full picture of the scene.

Three people stood with black tendrils swirling around them angrily. Their faces were shrouded and they stood in the same stance. Arms behind their backs feet shoulder width apart. Vision lay unconscious on the ground next to Peter and Scar. Tony had disappeared along with Thor. The three figures glanced up and as I blinked they were gone.

In a moments notice they were back only this time their were six. Three more had joined them but the new comers carried cases. Pitch black and bulky. The first looked up, their eyes golden and burning. Whoever it was spoke with a voice that sounded ages old yet young and terrifying.

"You cannot cheat your way forward. All knowledge must be earned not given. There is no turning back, no brushing aside, the Uniter wants a game. A game he shall get. The joke is on you, play, or die. It's your choice." Then just like that the dark tendrils wrapped around them and they were gone. The lights flickered back on and the tower was quiet.

The others began to stir and Thor and Tony came from down the hall looking horribly confused. Vision knelt beside Scar a concerned look on his face.

"Are you alright Wanda?" She nodded getting to her feet. Peter was yet to wake up. She made her way over to him and with a sigh rolled him over and smacked him hard. He sat bolt upright.

"I'm up!" His eyes darted about before his face settled on a confused expression as well. "What happened."

"That happened." Tony said looking at the table of evidence. All that remained were the clues the stones themselves were gone. "It was like the stones were getting energy from whatever those things were."

"They aren't things Tony." Nat said at the same time as Thor.

"They are the royal guard." Thor explained. "Originally destined to protect the Dark Prince. It appears they have now been employed to protect the Uniter. And to help our secret organization friends."

"INGSOC and their buddies." Tony agreed.

"The archives." Nat said suddenly worry  creeping into her voice before she ran off.

"This only affirms our connections. INGSOC, their rivals turned friends, the shadow walkers, and the Uniter are all working together." I nodded.

"What about Feline? Is she still the 'Insurance policy?'" Peter questioned. She was the only  one we had yet to tie anything to.

"I don't know but let's focus on the real problem. These people can get in and out of here with ease. Whenever they want." Scarrlet said her eyebrows drawing together.

"They took the scrolls." Nat fumed having returned. "And the samples."

"Everything we could use to figure them out." Vision noted.

"They said we had to earn the knowledge. That it couldn't be given to us." I explained as agents began to return from the lower levels and without asking questions set to work on fixing things.

"Well that's great." Tony sighed. "I guess we have no choice anymore. We're going to Paris. But I don't think it's going to be much of a vacation anymore."

"I have the feeling you're right." I agreed. Everyone shared looks and I watched as Nat and Scar shared the same look they had earlier in the day. Scar looked particularly worried and I glanced at Natasha. She seemed to have paled quite a bit. If anything all of this had made her more sick, the same for Scar.

Everyone dispersed not saying much every brain going a million miles an hour. It was time to pack our bags, we were going to Paris, and sadly it wasn't for a simple date.