"It's such a pleasure to see you again, Eve!" Thor greets me with a bone-crushing hug, the mountains of his muscles literally squeeze me like an orange for a smoothie. My access to air decrease but I still manage to half smile at my asgardian partner. He's still goofy and full of enthusiasm like two years ago, even though he wears to my surprise human clothes instead of his armor. "The time has passed unpleasantly fast!"

"I can't breathe, Thor." I almost laugh and he lets go of me while Bruce chuckles in the background.

"My apologies, I was overwhelmed by excitement and joy." He grins which makes me almost smile too. I'm glad to know that at least one of our team members is not completely broken. "It's like we're all together like a team again!"

I tense slightly up when he uses the term team and notice Tony's glare towards the ground, pretending not to pay attention to the Avengers reunion. He's been ignoring me for a week now. "I heard that you currently lived with Jane and left a mess in London? You should've called us."

"I'm still confused about those phones. You humans should use ravens, they're far more reliable." He praises them in a high tone, then he greets Steve vibrantly. Bruce steps forward and offers me a shy smile behind his glasses. As per usual he wears a purple shirt beneath the white lab coat.

"Hey." The corner of my lips twitch up at his awkward behavior. I don't know why, but Bruce ironically always makes me feel calm, if he's not the Hulk, because he beams a rare understanding. "How many days?"

"Five weeks since the last time I turned into the Hulk." He tells me proudly about the progress of maintaining his inner demon. "And it's becoming easier to turn back and control it."

"That's great." I now smile genuinely and pull him into a comfortable and familiar hug.

"I heard about D.C. Everything okay?" He whispers into my ear as he pulls back and I sigh, not really eager for this topic.

"I rather avoid talking about it. You should've visited us more though, it was pretty lonely over there." I nudge him playfully, then I lean against the couch where Clint and Natasha are sitting, reading some files on the iPad. "So why are we all gathered together again?"

"We've got a lead to Loki's scepter. It's presumably in a Hydra research base in Eastern Europe, Sokovia, to be specific. Baron Strucker is currently in charge." Natasha briefs us in and my head goes up, sharing a knowing glance with Steve. If it's a Hydra base, then they may have information about Bucky's whereabouts.

"When do we start?" Steve asks with his arms crossed over his chest. Seeing him and Thor in normal clothes next to each other is quite an interesting picture, two beefy blondes.

"Now." Tony finally pipes up. "And after all of this shit is over, I'm gonna throw a party."

I glance at him concerned, knowing that he only tries to push his problems aside with alcohol. He catches my look but ignores it.

***

Sokovia is a lot colder than I expected, especially at 6am. There is still snow laying around and the cold freezes my feet, itching my skin beneath the combat suit. If my hands didn't produce electricity, I wouldn't feel them anymore. Three Hydra agents attack me at the same time that we infiltrate the base but I knock them easily down. The ground slightly trembles, but I'm aware that this is not an earthquake.

The roar of the Hulk echoes through the forest and I recognize the eye-catching green just a few meters away from me, watching how he takes a few guards down. Hearing the shout of my name, I immediately duck and witness how Mjölnir flies above me, hitting a Hydra team behind me. The hammer goes back to its owner and he sends me a goofy smile. "You're welcome."

Sending a lightning strike towards him, he steps aside quickly, the power striking down the soldiers right behind him. I shrug casually. "We're even."

Oddly, the surrounding field of bombs and bullets is something I've grown used to, the sounds are almost satisfying in my ears. It is uncomfortably strange if it's quiet, oppressively silent. Then my nerves always tingle, craving for battles that somehow manage to calm me down. A war that never seems to leave my mind.

"Shit!" Tony swears through the earpiece.

"Language!" Steve exhorts strictly through the comm and I frown. What the hell did he just say? "JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?"

"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield. Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken." JARVIS informs us and I'm still struck by Steve's ironic comment.

"Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last." Thor throws down a soldier as we move forward through the snow, the Hulk not too far away.

"At long last is lasting a little long, boys." Natasha pants slightly, gun shots resound in her background and Clint agrees with her.

"Yeah. I think we lost the element of surprise."

"Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'?" Tony reminds everyone of Steve's grandpa moment, I can hear from his voice how he's gonna tease Steve now with that.

"I know." A short panting breath from Steve himself interrupts him, embarrassment laces his voice. "It just slipped out."

"Steve, when you enter the base, try to find more information." I remind him, not specifically mentioning Bucky but I know that he understands what I mean. Punching the Hydra agent in the face, I continue to fight.

"Copy that." He answers and Thor and I are surrounded by more agents than we could possibly defeat on our own in a short time. Glancing at me, he mutely asks me a question that I answer with a little nod. I raise my hand and shoot a blast of electricity at Mjölnir, then he strikes out and aims the blow at the ground. It trembles fiercely, electrifying and throwing the guards off.

"Let's split, that'll work faster." I suggest and Thor nods agreeing, the Hulk is out of sight. He's probably smashing something right now. Making my way to one of Hydra's bunkers, I try to run through the thick snow and groan in annoyance.

A bullet tries to pierce its way through my skin but I duck in time as it hits the tree behind me. Looking at the troop carrier coming towards me, I narrow my eyes and glare at them. "Son of a bitch."

"Careful, kiddo, Steve doesn't like this kind of language." Clint says playfully through my earpiece while I run towards the car, shooting a voltage at it as it flies away and the soldiers are knocked out. An explosion trembles the ground and I hold onto the tree, hoping that nobody necessarily heard it. "What was that?"

Shit. "What was what?"

"You know what I mean, the explosion." Clint probably rolls his eyes right now. "Did you blow up a car again?"

"Again? What do you mean with again, it's the first time that I do that!" I claim, then pause for a moment and add. "Today."

Suddenly, a gust of wind coming out of nowhere passes me and nearly knocks me off, I squeal in surprise, only steadying myself to prevent to trip in the last second. The wind has left a strangely blue aura in its path, the colorful trace doesn't disappear as fast as the wind itself. What the hell was that? A kind of new weapon?

The mysterious force comes back but this time, it throws me off and makes me fall to the ground by shoving me into the snow. I groan and realize that this isn't a wind. It's a person. The blue trace appears again and this time with the person himself. The silver-haired guy looks down with his dark blue eyes at me, only scoffing cockily with a thick accent. "You didn't see that coming?"

"What?" I scrunch up my face in confusion and within a blink, he races off with an incredible speed. Who the hell is he? And what kind of inhuman abilities does he have? And why is everyone I meet so annoyingly conceited? "We have an enhanced in the field, male, maybe 20? Be careful, he's... fast."

"Clint's hit!" Natasha sounds slightly panicked, concern running through her voice and my eyes widen as I get up again.

"What??? How bad is it?!" I try not to shout or to be too worried.

"Pretty bad, we're gonna need evac." She informs us all. "Eve, get Banner. Thor, can you help us? And Steve, Tony, you two better hurry with the mission."

"I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone the better. Captain and Stark secure the scepter." Thor responds as I make my way to Bruce. I just have helped him to turn back for three times so far and it ended in a disaster twice. "Find it."

"And for gosh sake, watch your language." Tony adds in a jokingly serious tone and I hear Steve sighing in the comm.

"That's not going away anytime soon."

I follow the roar of the green monster in the forest, already recognizing his color from a distance. The closer I get, the more unsteady the ground becomes and I walk quietly towards him. Right now, he smashes furiously an armor, tearing it recklessly apart and my heart slightly races, but I remain calm. "Hey, Hulk."

He turns around and scowls at me, his big appearance hardly intimidates me. As long as I don't call him by his real name, he's not gonna tear me apart. I've learned that calling him Bruce Banner drives the Hulk furious because he's weak, actually it's a kind of self-loathe.

"Do you know who I am? I'm a friend of yours. We both took the super-soldier serum and we both have endured an incredible pain. It made us strong but also turned us into monsters." My voice is soft and low, almost a whisper as he stares at me. "I want to thank you for saving my friend Bruce Banner from the bullet."

He luckily starts to calm down and stumbles away with a groan. If he didn't, I would have to use my powers to knock him out which not always works and then, he'd be after me. Covering my eyes with my hand, I wait for him to change back into his human self. "Please tell me that Tony's elastic pants for you are working. I only have a coat for you."

"They do, you can look now." He chuckles slightly and I remove my hand. The green on his skin is gone but it seems like he's freezing in his pants, standing half naked in Sokovia's snow.

"Well, it actually worked this time." I throw the coat at him as he catches it, quickly putting it on. "Let's go back."

"You didn't seem scared." He assumes while we go to the quinjet. I keep looking around, making sure that no one tries to attack us.

"I was a bit nervous, that's it." I state and spot the jet, Natasha lands it close to us. We enter quickly and Bruce doesn't hesitate and grabs his headphones and Walkman. He probably listens to his opera music to calm fully down, not risking the return of his alter ego.

"Everything alright?" I ask Clint who's lying on a divan bed, a piece of cloth is pressed on his bloody wound. Beads of perspiration cover his forehead and his skin is pale, almost white. A silly smirk graces his lips and Natasha sits next to him, holding supportively his other hand.

"I've never been better, it's just a little scratch. Don't worry, I'm fine."

"I've witnessed a lot of people in their last moments before they died, and none of them has been so strong like you, my friend." Thor says admiring and Natasha stares at him with a half glare.

"Thor!" I slap his chest, shooting him a judging look.

"What??" The blonde is confused about our reaction and oblivious of his behavior, I groan.

"Stop talking as if Clint will die any moment, it's not appropriate."

"No, no, he's right, Eve. Maybe I am dying." Clint confirms in a half jokingly and dramatic tone, faking a cough and Natasha rolls her eyes, not believing the childish act.

"Stop acting like a damn drama queen and suck it up, Barton. You've been worse in Budapest."

"Even in the last moment of my life, my girlfriend is mean to me." He keeps commenting with an overdramatic voice and inhales exaggeratedly deeply. In this moment, Tony and Steve come back and Iron Man holds the scepter in his hand. We have succeeded.

"No new information." Steve refers to Bucky, slight signs of disappointment left in his turquoise eyes. "But there was another enhanced, female. She probably belongs to the guy you mentioned before."

I just nod, my chest feels suddenly so heavy. The success doesn't feel as satisfying as it should when Tony receives my glance and just looks away, still ignoring me as if I was air.