CHAPTER ONE
THE AVENGERS INITIATIVE

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     The best thing about being able to control light was that, with enough focus, Riley Cho could turn himself invisible.

It was especially helpful when he had to sneak across a large lawn of someone so high up in S.H.I.E.L.D. like Alexander Pierce. His large house was made up of mostly smooth white walls and large windows, but the openness of his home was entirely an illusion. Riley had been watching it for days, taking note of every security camera and every fence and every guard that made his or her rounds around the property, and had concluded that he'd have to rely on his powers to even get past the fence. A giant spotlight shined for most of the night, moving across the yard every minute, but he couldn't wait until Pierce went to bed and the light turned off. That was when even more security systems turned on for the night; he'd have to get in and out while Pierce was awake and inside with his maid, because that was when Pierce felt the most secure and didn't bother with all the other security measures his home had.

Riley didn't know why Nick Fury had told him to spy on Alexander Pierce. He didn't know why he was supposed to get into his office, download his files on his laptop, and then leave without a trace. What he did know was that Fury was a paranoid man, and that sometimes he asked Riley to spy on people who turned out to be completely clean just because Fury needed to be sure. He could only assume that was the case now, because as far as he knew, Nick Fury and Alexander Pierce were friends. But Pierce had moved up in S.H.I.E.L.D. recently, to a position directly below Fury himself, so Riley supposed it made sense that the change had triggered Fury's paranoia.

He checked the time, tapping at the touch-screen of his watch. It was a few seconds until the next opening. There was a total of fifteen guards that constantly moved around the property, each one moving from their spot to the next every hour. He was planning on sliding through the gate during the switch, which lasted from twenty to thirty seconds. He had to assume he only had twenty seconds, and darted forward the second the guard twisted around the corner. He ran as quietly as possibly, his feet light on the ground, and whipped out the decoding device before he even reached the gate. He held the device in front of the number pad by the gate and let it decode the password, typing it in quickly. The pad beeped, and then the gate popped open. Riley slid past it and managed to close it right when the next guard arrived, and slipped behind a large bush right as the spotlight slid across the gate.

He took the next few minutes making absolutely sure he was invisible. He was planning on sticking to the shadows and avoiding the spotlights moving across the yard, but he didn't want to risk getting caught on camera. The cameras probably had heat sensors, but that couldn't be helped, and he knew for a fact one couldn't construct an entire face just from the heat of a body alone. And no one knew Riley could turn himself invisible.

Taking a deep breath, he doublechecked to make sure he was invisible, then darted out from behind the bush. The backyard was pretty large, but the majority of it was taken up by a long, wide inground pool. He had to stop a few times to avoid a spotlight—because the camera catching a shadow that seemed to belong to no one would just cause a panic—but he got to the glass back door without triggering any alarms. The security cameras weren't angled toward the doors, but he kept his invisibility regardless, keeping one eye out for anyone inside as he took his pick-locking kit out of his pants pocket. He paused only long enough to check if the door was actually locked, and since it was, he got to work. He didn't want to risk turning on a flashlight, so he worked in the dark. Once he heard the lock click, he put his kit away and pulled his hood up over his head and the black face mask over his mouth and nose.

He didn't know if there were any cameras inside, but he did know that multiple lights were on. He couldn't risk staying invisible inside. It took up too much of his energy and focus. Closing the door softly behind him and locking it back, he stood for a moment and listened. He could hear a television playing somewhere in the house, and the soft singing of the maid as she made her way down the hall. Riley moved to hide behind the kitchen island as she came through, waited until she was going downstairs where he knew the laundry room was, then darted down the hall.

Pierce's office was on the second floor, and as he darted past the living room, Riley was suddenly relieved to see that Pierce was watching TV and eating dinner. He wouldn't have to worry about anyone else in the house until whatever show he was watching ended. He found the stairs and hurried up. Once he was on the second floor, he focused only on getting to the office. It was the last door on the right—it was easy for him to get his hands on the house blueprints—and he slipped into it without hesitating. He didn't flip on the light, just took a moment to let his eyes adjust. Once they did, he made his way to the desk. His laptop was half-closed on top, and when he pried it open and tapped the spacebar, it came to life with a brightness that made him squint. He took a flash drive out of his pocket and put it into the port, typed a few directions, then let it do its work.

Since he had gloves on, he didn't see the harm in looking around the office as the flash drive downloaded every single file on the laptop. The first thing he did was carefully open the window, just to make sure he had a quick getaway if he found himself trapped inside the office, and then he started looking over the bookshelves. There was nothing particularly interesting about any of the things on the shelves, aside from—maybe—the Nobel Peace Prize. Humming softly, he moved onto the books themselves. They were mostly historical, and his eyes moved over them quickly in disinterest. None of it seemed out of the ordinary for a government official, so when he heard a beep come from the laptop, he turned away.

He quickly started typing in more codes and directions, telling the flash drive to erase any sign that the files were tampered with or stolen, then programmed the laptop to send Fury frequent updates about whatever Pierce did on it. Once he was done, he carefully pulled the flash drive from the port, put the laptop back into sleeping mode, then closed it halfway. He studied the flash drive for a moment with a frown, then capped it and let out a soft sigh.

"For the Secretary of Defense, it was very easy to get in here," he murmured to himself, looking around the office with newfound suspicion. Natasha had taught him to be paranoid of everyone and to always trust his gut, and his gut was telling him in that moment that something wasn't right. It should have been harder to get inside that office; it should have taken Riley longer than twenty seconds to hack into his computer. Pursing his lips behind his face mask, he peered around the office again before his eyes landed on a painting. He started pressing his fingers into the wall a second later, trying to find a difference in the plaster, knocking lightly to see if anything sounded hollow or metallic. When he eventually heard something, it was by the bookshelves, and he had to move the furniture a bit from the wall to get access to the hidden panel.

It took him a few tries to get the panel to slide open, but when he did, he saw that there was a safe behind it. It didn't surprise him at all, and he just considered the number panel with a frown. He didn't want to risk digging out the decoder. He had a feeling the safe was far more protected than the gate outside. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had a facial, eye, or hand scan—maybe even all three—in place. Clicking his tongue, he closed the panel and pushed the shelf back into place. It was while he was taking a step back to make sure it didn't look any different from before that he heard an alarm go off in his right ear. He tugged his glove off his right hand and brought his finger up to his ear, pressing the pad of it against his in-ear to turn it fully on.

"I'm kind of busy," he whispered, knowing the person on the other end could hear him loud and clear. He tugged his glove back on and adjusted his hood more firmly on his head. He had got what he needed, and now it was time to get out of the house. Not wanting to deal with maneuvering through the house again, he started for the window.

"I'm waiting for you on the main road," Maria Hill said, not even bothering to acknowledge what he had said. She knew perfectly well that he was busy; she was the one who gave him the mission on Fury's behalf, since he had been busy with an underground research facility studying the Tesseract. They had dug it up with Steve Rogers, and now Fury was trying to figure out what it did and how to use it. Riley didn't really think about it much, aside from when he had to. "Get to me as soon as you can."

"Why are you here to pick me up again?" Riley asked as he pulled himself out of the window. He pulled the window back down and turned to look over his options. His best bet was turning invisible and running across the front yard, so he got to work climbing across the roof.

"I didn't tell you the first time."

"It was worth a shot." Letting out a small grunt, he climbed down the side of the house and crept across the yard. Turning invisible this time was easier than the first, simply because he wasn't as worried. It was always easier to get out of somewhere than it was getting in, at least to him. All the guards were faced away from him, and dodging the spotlight was the easiest part of the night. He reached the gate with little to no problems, and just had to wait until the guard was gone before he could push it open. A code wasn't needed to leave, so once he closed the gate behind him, he broke into a steady jog and didn't stop using his powers until he was out of sight of any and all security cameras.

A few moments later, his face mask was stashed away in his pocket, and his hood was back down. Pierce lived on a hill a good bit away from society, but that didn't mean he didn't have neighbors, and Riley passed one of them as he jogged down a dirt road. He avoided eye contact with the driver, and they didn't even slow as they passed him. To them, he looked like a random night jogger. He reached the main road in record time, and slid into the black sedan parked off to the side with flushed cheeks and constricting lungs.

"I think I'm out of shape," was how he greeted Maria Hill, who looked at him with a frown as he pulled his in-ear out, dropped it in her waiting palm, then dug the flash drive out and dropped that into her palm as well. He started taking off his jacket next. It wasn't until it was in his lap and he was reaching for the water bottle in her cup holder that he realized she was being oddly quiet, and he sent her a puzzled look. "Everything okay?" Her mouth tightened into a straight line.

"Did anyone see you?" she asked first. When he shook his head, she nodded, put the flash drive and in-ear away, then started the car. "Good. That's one less thing to worry about. Put your seatbelt on." Rolling his eyes, Riley did. He didn't press her for answers. He knew they were coming. She wasn't supposed to pick him up. He was supposed to meet her the next morning at headquarters. There had to be a reason why the plans suddenly changed.

"So," Riley said after a solid fifteen minutes of silent driving. "I'm not in any kind of trouble, am I? Is this about me flirting with that Fitz guy in the science division? If it is, I swear to god, I didn't mean for him to knock over those chemicals. That was a complete accident, okay, it's not my fault he got so flustered and he wasn't even supposed to be in there, he was just visiting his friend and—"

"Riley," Maria said with a huff, "shut up for two seconds." Riley pressed his lips together and waited, growing antsier and antsier as the silence grew even longer. Maria pulled to a stop at a red light. He expected for her to go straight and head toward the nearest airport in Maryland to fly them both back to New York City, but instead she turned left and headed toward the ocean. A frown tugged at his mouth.

"Are we going to the Helicarrier?" When Maria didn't respond, Riley let out a small sound of impatience and pressed his head back against the headrest. Maria shot him a quick warning glance, and he tried to reign in his growing annoyance.

"Drop the attitude," Maria ordered as she pulled into a parking lot beside a port deck and proceeded to step out of her car. Riley rushed to follow her, still confused by her behavior, and followed her onto the deck. "Yes, we're going to the Helicarrier. No, I'm not telling you why—at least, not until we're on a moving boat. You've been good about following orders lately, but considering what's happened, I'm not so sure you won't run off right now and do something stupid. We don't have the time to rescue you right now, and we don't need him getting his hands on you."

"Him?" Riley asked, eyebrows shooting up. A motor boat was waiting for them at the end of the deck. He could see the Helicarrier in the distance, as close as the huge machine could be without scraping the bottom of the ocean. It would be in the middle of the sea by that morning. It was huge, but it was fast. "Who are you talking about?" Maria didn't respond, just pointed at the motor boat. With a sigh, Riley obediently got in and waited. A few minutes later, Maria was turning on the motor, and they were shooting across the water at a speed that made Riley feel both exhilarated and nauseous. He had always hated the ocean. Clinging to the side of the boat, he stared hard at the floor and focused on his breathing.

"Have you eaten anything?" Maria asked, completely unfazed. Riley grunted out that he hadn't, having been watching Pierce's home all day. She nodded. "We can grab something from the kitchen before I go give Fury the flash drive. I'll explain everything then." Riley could only nod.

They had to climb up onto the Helicarrier by a ladder on the side. It wasn't a short trip, considering how large the Helicarrier was. Riley was allowed to go first, and he had to pull his gloves back on to make sure his sweaty palms didn't make him slip. He was relieved when he was finally on solid ground. The Helicarrier was so large that he barely felt the waves beneath them, and it was easy for him to forget that there was a huge body of water once he was away from the edge. He could jump from a plane and scale a building just fine, but when it came to water, he would have preferred to stay very far away. Kicking his foot against the ground, he followed Maria into the Helicarrier, passing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents hurrying back and forth. It took hundreds to man the Helicarrier itself, and he was sure even more would show up before they inevitably lifted into the air.

He had only been on the base a few times, so he let Maria lead the way to the kitchen. It was swarming with hungry field agents like him, fresh from missions. Their handlers probably picked them up the same way Maria did for him. She left him at the doorway of the large kitchen, then came back a few minutes later with two water bottles and two salad containers. She brushed past him without a word, and Riley followed behind her obediently. The more she stayed silent, the more nervous he became. By the time they reached what he assumed would be his sleeping quarters and they got settled on the bed, he was fidgeting and his stomach was twisting so badly he couldn't even think about eating. He played with his food until Maria started talking.

"Okay," she said with a long sigh, twisting the cap back onto her water bottle and letting it flop on the bed. Riley speared a piece of lettuce and glanced up at her warily, watching as she pushed her half-eaten salad aside to focus on him fully. He licked his lips and set his fork down. "I'm not going to beat around the bush anymore, and there's no way I can say this with sensitivity, so here it goes. Barton has been compromised."

For a moment, time stood still, and Riley couldn't actually process the words. When he finally did, the air seemed to suck out of the room, and he couldn't quite get oxygen into his lungs. His chest constricted, fear and panic flowing through his entire body. His hands were trembling as he rushed to get off of the bed, and his legs felt weak as he started pacing back and forth across his sleeping quarters. Maria watched him in silence, waiting for him to get whatever he was feeling out of his system. Air was rushing in and out of his mouth at a rapid pace. By the time he stopped pacing and turned toward Maria, his head was dizzy and his entire body was tingling from a panic attack that he had barely stopped from coming.

Breathing exercises had never worked for him where panic attacks were concerned, but moving around did. Clint was the one who had suggested pacing. Riley's throat tightened. He swallowed thickly and wet his lips.

"Where is he now?" he croaked out. His hands were still shaking, but there was nothing he could do about that. Maria looked over him for a moment, deciding for herself if he could handle anymore news about Clint, before she moved to stand from the bed. Riley crossed his arms over his chest as she approached, and tried very hard not to pull away when she pressed a gentle hand against her arm.

"All we know is that he's alive. We don't know where he is, but we do know what happened. Do you remember the gods Barton had to deal with about a year ago?" Riley nodded. Clint had a field day telling Riley and Nat that story over takeout. The gods were technically aliens, as far as Riley knew, but the only other thing he remembered about them were their names. "Well, one of them—Loki—got his hands on the Tesseract. On top of that, he also had some type of scepter with another power source inside of it that he could use to control people. That's what happened to Barton."

"So he's, what, Loki's lackey now?" Riley asked in disbelief. "How are we supposed to fix that? Where's Nat? Why are we even here?" He motioned around him to emphasize he was referring to the Helicarrier. Maria sighed.

"Loki has already attacked one government facility," Maria explained, the epitome of patience. "We have to assume he's going to attack more, so Fury moved headquarters here for now in case Loki decides to attack the organization itself. Fury has called every free field agent back to base and has issued this a Level 7 nationwide emergency. As for Barton, we need to focus on Loki first, and we'll figure Barton out once we get our hands on him. Romanoff will be here soon. She was sent to get Bruce Banner." Riley's brow furrowed.

"The Hulk?" he asked, surprised. As far as he knew, Bruce Banner and his green alter ego were both in India, staying calm and helping as many people he could. Riley had been sent there once to help take out a team going after the Hulk, but was immediately called back for other assignments. S.H.I.E.L.D. had their eyes on everyone, and they thought Riley was wasting his talents babysitting a doctor. "Why do we need him?"

"The Tesseract gives off gamma radiation, and we need Banner's help tracking it. Plus, when it comes to an alien, we figured a huge green guy would definitely come in handy. Coulson went to get Stark. Fury himself went for Rogers." Riley went still at the mention of Tony Stark, who he hadn't seen since he tried to steal from him years ago. He didn't even know if Tony knew he was a field agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. now. Clearing his throat, Riley latched onto his next question so he didn't have to think about it.

"Why is Fury gathering the best of his agents and the best superheroes?" he asked. "What's he planning?"

"He's making a team," Maria revealed, finally smiling at him. She even offered a gentle punch on the arm. "He's creating a team he calls the Avengers, and guess what, Riles? You're on it. Now get some rest. You're going to meet everyone's favorite heroes tomorrow."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm so NERVOUS sldjskhfskhdfs