CHAPTER SEVEN
THE AVENGERS

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     After Phil Coulson's death was announced to everyone on the Helicarrier, things got quiet. It was unnerving, almost, to walk down the ruined halls of the biggest contraption anyone had ever been on and hear absolutely no one talking. There were other sounds—people repairing wires and walls, cleanup crews moving through the place, metal scraping against metal—but there weren't any words. Coulson hadn't been the only casualty in the attack, but he had been the one everyone knew. The one everyone liked. He had been a friend to everyone, in a way. Riley could remember the first time they had met, the first time Riley had ever been to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. Coulson had overwhelmed him then, rattling off facts about Riley's life as a weird sort of greeting before he had shaken Riley's hand and told him, "I can't wait to work with you!"

Riley felt a ball lodge itself in his throat as he sat in the medical wing, waiting for a doctor to come around and check on him. He was pretty sure he was fine. He hadn't sustained any major injuries during any of the fights, and he had almost been able to get away without a checkup before Tony idly mentioned—while getting checked nearby—that the explosion had sent Riley flying through the lab window and to the lower level. Riley had almost managed to talk his way out of that too, and then Steve had stepped in to mention that he had been with Bruce and Nat, and now there he was. Ordered to stay on the little cot until a doctor came around. He was glaring at Tony and Steve both now, using his irritation at their involvement to avoid thinking of Coulson. Sweet, fan-boy Coulson, who had been the first person outside of Nat and Fury to befriend him. Clint had come only a few minutes later, but still. Riley had never forgotten how friendly he was.

Riley hadn't been very accustomed to kindness at the time. It had left a huge impression on him. Now, he made an effort to be kind and friendly, too. There was no point putting more cruelty into the world, and he wasn't going to, not if he could help it.

"Don't give me that look, young man," Tony said mockingly, noticing Riley's bitter glare before Steve did, since he was talking to the nurse wrapping a bandage around his bicep. Tony even had to the nerve to wag his finger in Riley's direction, and Riley couldn't help scowling in embarrassment. He hated being treated like a child, especially when he had helped Tony and Steve not even thirty minutes ago. He tried to see the interaction as positive—because in a way it was, Tony wasn't being passive-aggressive toward him anymore—but he was too stressed about the damage, too worried about Clint, and too sad about Coulson. So instead of playing along like he normally would have, he felt his lip curl up in a sneer. It was an expression he hadn't worn since he had been an intern at Stark Industries. Or had pretended to be an intern.

"I'm twenty-years-old," he seethed, though his scowl quickly transformed into a friendly smile when a nurse came to check his vitals. He answered her questions as quickly as possible and put up with her checking his joints and head for any bumps. He had a few bruises, most of which would be worse tomorrow, but other than that, he was fine. He was lucky he hadn't broken or fractured anything during the fall. As he went through the procedure—and got anti-bacterial ointment put on the small cut on the back of his head, mixing disgustingly with his hair—he overheard Steve and Tony muttering to each other.

"...really twenty?" Steve was asking, clearly unaware that Riley was close enough to hear them. He cast a look over at the two heroes out of the corner of his eye, mildly surprised that they were getting along so well now. They'd been at each other's throats in the lab, but he supposed that had a lot to do with Loki's scepter. It must have been influencing them somehow, heightening their negative traits and emotions. It explained why Riley had been bold enough to actually talk back to Tony when he was supposed to be playing nice with him. As an agent, he knew better.

"Honest to god, I thought he was younger," Tony muttered. Riley huffed in displeasure and cast a look over at the agent sitting on the opposite side of him. It was an older man named Grant Ward. Riley had worked with him a few times, enough to actually speak to him casually now.

"Do I really look that young?" Riley asked him, knowing Ward was listening in on every word. Spies were so accustomed to listening to everything around them that tuning conversations out simply wasn't possible anymore. Ward glanced up from where he'd been watching someone wrap up his ankle and made a show of looking at Riley up and down.

"Yes," Ward said confidently. "Yes, you do." Riley immediately scowled and turned away. The nurse working on him said that he was fine to move around now, then ordered him to come directly back to medical if he felt dizzy or felt any other aches and pains. Riley assured her that he would, thanked her for patching him up, then jumped off the cot and made his way over to Tony and Steve. They were still muttering to each other, though now about the fight earlier in the lab. They both stopped when they saw Riley heading toward them.

"Gossiping is rude, I hope you two know that," Riley said, rocking once on his heels before he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. Everyone had been ordered to wear more layers after the attack, since they were pretty high in the air and there was a giant hole in the Helicarrier. Fury didn't want his agents getting sick on him during a nationwide emergency. "You're welcome, by the way. You know, for helping you two."

"Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head," Tony muttered, pushing himself up into a standing position. "You were doing your job, kid." Riley rolled his eyes, not at all surprised that Tony's response was to avoid saying thank you, and then his eyes went to Steve. He was standing from the cot too, and managed to surprise Riley when he put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"Thank you," Steve said sincerely. "I'm not exactly up to date when it comes to technology." Riley, softening a little, let his bad mood melt away. He could only respond to Steve's words with a nod. Even though he'd wanted to be thanked, he wasn't sure how to respond now that he was in front of someone who was grateful. Giving his shoulder one last squeeze, Steve dropped his hand and added, "We're going to talk to Fury. You coming?"

Riley opened his mouth to say yes, then hesitated. He knew Clint was on the Helicarrier somewhere, separated from most of the people and strapped down to a chair. Nat had sent a quick message through the comms when everything had calmed down to explain that she had fought Clint during the attack. She'd managed to knock him unconscious, and now they had him in custody. Riley didn't know if Clint was awake yet, didn't know if Loki still had control over his mind, and part of him didn't even want to know. He was torn between wanting to see him and being afraid of what he'd see.

With that thought in mind, Riley released a small sigh and gave Steve a nod. He might as well go with them to meet with Fury, especially since both Thor and Bruce were nowhere to be found. Both of them had fallen from the Helicarrier itself. Thor had been in the prison cell meant for Bruce but holding Loki; Loki had sent it out into open air. Bruce, in comparison, had attacked some planes shooting at him through one of the holes blown into the Helicarrier. The pilot had, thankfully, survived and had reported the incident from the ground, but both Bruce and Thor were lost. Riley wondered if S.H.I.E.L.D. had managed to locate either of them using satellites, but considering the tech crew was still trying to stabilize the Helicarrier itself, he doubted it.

Riley followed Tony and Steve through the ruined halls in silence, taking in all the damage, all the people working tirelessly to get things organized. His eyes jumped over the various dead bodies, all dressed in black. There was no way to tell who had been Loki's and who had been S.H.I.E.L.D.'s. They wouldn't know until much later. Riley pushed that thought out of his mind and decided to focus on the present. When they got to the meeting room, his mind was primarily clear. The only people in the meeting room when they had arrived was Maria and Fury. Maria was bruised up quite a bit and standing straight as a rod by the windows, her hands locked behind her back. Fury, in comparison, was pacing by the table. Silently, Riley, Tony, and Steve all sat in a chair. They sat for a few minutes in silence, and by the time Fury decided to turn toward them, Riley had already noticed he was holding something in his hands.

"These were in Phil Coulson's jacket," Fury announced, raising the thing in his hand before he tossed it onto the glass table. Riley didn't realize they were a deck of collectable cards until they spread every which way in the way, landing on the glass in different ways. The one that landed closest to Riley was splattered with blood. sucking in a sharp breath, Riley reached for it, flipping it over to see Captain America, drawn in a cartoonish style. "I guess he never did get you to sign them," Fury added. Riley put the card down and glanced over at Steve, who was staring at a card of his own, also splattered in blood. Riley swallowed.

"Are there any updates?" Riley asked, trying to change the subject.

"No," Fury responded. "We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the Cube, Banner, Thor..." Fury shook his head. "I got nothing for you. I lost my one good eye." Riley had already assumed that, considering no teams had been sent out to retrieve Thor or Bruce, but hearing it coming from Fury himself left him feeling hollow. He glanced up just in time to see Fury place his hands on the table, then he was extremely surprised when Fury added, "Maybe I had that coming." Steve and Riley stared at him, speechless, while Tony continued to stare off into space. Fury took his hands off the table and moved closer to where Steve and Riley were sitting.

"Yes," Fury continued, "we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something even riskier." Fury moved behind Riley then, and Riley was too intimidated to turn around. He only glanced out of the corner of his eye when he noticed the empty seat between himself and Steve move. Fury had placed his hands on the back of it. "There was an idea—Stark knows this, so does Cho—called the Avengers Initiative." Fury moved to stand behind Tony then, and it allowed Riley some space to breath. He could feel the guilt building inside of him, and he wasn't sure why until Fury continued. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea. In heroes."

Tony stood then, so fast that it startled everyone in the room aside from Fury, who seemed to expect that very reaction. Tony stood there for a moment, still staring into space, before he turned and left the meeting room entirely. Riley didn't particularly blame him. Phil Coulson had believed that the heroes on the Helicarrier would save the day, would stop any tragedies from happening, and he had ended up being the tragedy. Riley, Thor, Tony, Steve, Natasha, they all should have been down there fighting Bruce together. They should have been teaming up to take him out, and then should have coordinated enough so that Phil hadn't been alone when confronting Loki. Instead, they'd been tearing at each other's throats while their enemies had been preparing to strike. It was a hard pill to swallow.

"Well," Fury said slowly, once Tony was out of sight. "It's an old-fashioned notion." Steve didn't move from his spot, still staring hard at the bloody collection cards. Riley himself wondered if the meeting was over, since they weren't told what to do next, just scolded over how bad they were at teamwork. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Riley slowly pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet. Fury didn't say anything when he did, so Riley took that as a sign that he was officially dismissed. Feeling absolutely worse than he had not even ten minutes ago, Riley wandered the halls of the Helicarrier until he made it back to the medical wing. Instead of entering the main room where most were being treated, he slipped into a side hall that held private rooms for more serious injuries. He could hear groans of pain as he passed by the doors. Most of them were left open, but some were shut and locked. Agents that had been under Loki's control were in those; almost all of them were still under his control, and were now strapped to beds.

Riley glanced through the tiny windows until he found Nat sitting in the corner of one. The door was still locked, so he flashed his identification card against the scanner and hoped he'd been cleared to see Clint. Much to his relief, the red light above the door handle turned green, and he pushed the door open. Clint wasn't strapped to the bed, and he could hear the shower running in the bathroom. That could only mean the control Loki had on him was gone.

"How's your head?" Nat asked, scooting over on the small bench she was sitting on, letting Riley sit beside her. There was a table with a pitcher of water sitting nearby, so Riley reached for it and poured himself a glass. The only thing he had really done since the fight was escape to a bathroom and scrub the dirt and dust off his skin. He hadn't bothered drinking any water, which was rather foolish of him. Maybe he did have a small concussion. Shaking his head, he drained half the water before answering Nat's question.

"Fine," he said shortly, shrugging his shoulders when Nat frowned at him. She looked exhausted. Sitting around waiting for Clint to wake up, not knowing whether he'd actually be Clint or not, must not have been a pleasant experience. "How's your ankle?"

"Fine," Nat muttered, stretching out her leg and circling her foot just to prove her point. Considering there was a small brace around her ankle, though, Riley raised his eyebrows, doubtful that it was fine at all. Even a broken bone wouldn't have kept Nat from walking on it, though. Fortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doctors were more efficient than most, and had technology that healed a lot of things quickly. The tech was only brought out in dire circumstances, though. "Clint is himself again. Hitting him really hard on the head did the trick. Remind me to do it to the other puppets soon."

"Let's try taking down Loki first," Riley said warily, not having any doubt in his mind that Nat would go around hitting people in the head. He studied her for a moment, debated whether to tell her what Fury had said or not, then let his shoulders fall and sighed. "Fury...is not pleased with us. He explained the Avengers Initiative, the dream he had of bringing together extraordinary people. It was the closest I've ever seen him say that he was disappointed in someone." Riley glanced away, gluing his eyes to the floor beneath his feet. He still wasn't sure why he had been included in the Avengers Initiative. It made him stare at his hands, made him spread his fingers and remember what it felt like to bring light to his fingertips. He hadn't used his powers thoroughly in so long. Aside from making himself invisible when he needed to, he tended to act like he didn't have the powers at all. The strongest show of his power recently had been the burst of light he'd let out while everyone was fighting.

He had never bothered learning how to incorporate his powers into a fight. He had always kept them at a distance, blaming them for being the reason why he had spent the majority of his life being forced to work for black market dealers. With Fury's words echoing in his head, about heroes and being extraordinary, it made him reconsider. Maybe his powers weren't a stain in his DNA like he had always thought. Maybe he could use them for some good. Real good. That was all he ever really wanted to do.

"What are you thinking about?" Nat asked quietly, though she made sure to give him plenty of time to actually think. Riley blinked a few times, then noticed the shower in the bathroom switch off. He glanced up, pulling his eyes from the floor and dropping his hands.

"Just thinking that maybe my powers aren't that bad," Riley admitted. Nat's frowned deepened enough to cause wrinkles between her eyebrows.

"They were never bad," she murmured, staring at him so hard that Riley couldn't bring himself to look away. "They just caught the attention of bad people." Riley nodded, glancing away again. That was something he always had to remind himself of. His powers weren't bad, and he wasn't bad—he was just used by bad people. That didn't make him a bad person. That made him a victim. Everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. was a victim of something. Whether they were victims of a bad situation or just victims of a family legacy, it didn't change the fact that they had at least one thing in common. He took a deep breath and shook his feelings off of him right when the bathroom door opened.

With a bright smile, Riley cried out, "Clint!" and shot up from his chair. Clint was far more welcoming to hugs than Nat was—probably due to his wife and kids, who Riley had met and absolutely adored—so he had no problem welcoming Riley into a hug now. Neither said anything. It wasn't needed. Riley was just relieved he was alright, and Clint was relieved Riley was alright, too. They were still hugging when the door to the room slid open. Riley pulled back, turning to see Steve standing in the doorway.

"Time to go," was all Steve said. All three of them raised their eyebrows, but only Nat recovered quickly enough to speak.

"Go where?" she demanded.

"I'll explain on the way," Steve said quickly. "Can you fly one of those jets?" Riley and Nat both opened their mouths to say that of course they could, but Clint spoke before either of them this time.

"I can," he declared. Riley turned to study him, a little unsure if it was wise to take him anywhere just yet. Steve seemed wary as well, shooting a glance at Nat. When Nat nodded, both of them relaxed.

"You got a suit?" Steve asked, and Riley perked up, a bit of fresh excitement coursing through him. He was already in his own uniform, easy to move in and durable. It was even heat resistant, though Riley had never known whether that was just specifically because of himself or if every uniform had the same feature. Either way, suiting up could only mean one thing: they were going after Loki. Steve and Tony must have worked out their differences, and they also must have found Loki by themselves. Or maybe they were going to find Thor and Bruce. Riley was just happy that they were doing something.

"Yeah," Clint confirmed, nodding his head.

"Then suit up," Steve ordered. "We leave in ten."

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have an announcement to make. Riley Cho is an absolute angel, and characters who choose to be kind after going through literal hell are underrated. Kind characters in general are underrated.

Unedited, please excuse any mistakes xx